Abstract

Does the concept of citizenship still make sense today? There is a continuum, in the constitutional State, between sovereignty, human rights and political community: the concept of citizenship serves exactly to represent this particular political relationship. History offers various dimensions of citizenship, from its exclusive notion in the liberal State to a more inclusive one in the constitutional State. Traditional categories are challenged within and beyond the State, in particular by the process of European integration, the heterogeneity of the multicultural society and the boundless space of our globalized world. The present essay discusses the transformations that the notion of citizenship is undergoing in the new millennium, identifying its most salient features in the relationship between individual and political community.