Citizenship and Ethnicity - The Growth and Development of a Democratic Multiethnic Institution

Today, all industrialized states are multinational. However, as Political Sociologist Feliks Gross points out, there remains considerable debate and experimentation on how to organize a multiethnic, democratic, and humane state. Gross examines various types of multiethnic states as well as their early origins and prospects for success. In the past, minorities were usually formed as a consequence of conquest or migration; minorities tended to have an inferior status, subordinated to the ruling, dominant ethnic class.

While Athens provides an early example of a state formed by alliance and association, the Romans advanced this concept when they extended to subjected peoples the status by means of citizenship. After the fall of Rome, citizenship continued in Italian and other continental cities. In England, subjectship associated with individual freedom had native roots. The American and French Revolutions revived and created the modern definition of citizenship. Along with Rome, however, only the United States provides an example of a successful multiethnic state of continental dimensions.

List of contents

Introduction
The Multiethnic State: The Way It Began
The Roots of Citizenship: Athens and Rome
Citizenship Survives in the Cities of Europe
Unfolding of Democratic Citizenship
Concluding Comments
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the author

FELIKS GROSS is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Graduate School and Brooklyn College, City University of New York, honorary president of CUNY Academy for Humanities and Sciences./e Professor Gross has published more than 14 books and numerous articles, primarily in political sociology.

Product details

• Authors: Feliks Gross, Gross Feliks
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.1999
• EAN: 9780313309328
• ISBN: 978-0-313-30932-8
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Social Theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Minority Studies, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civics & Citizenship, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, Anthropology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Social Theory, Political science & theory, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, Political science and theory, Civil rights & citizenship, Physical anthropology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Biracial & Multiracial Studies, Civics and citizenship, Politics, Law, and Government