T.H. Marshall is probably one of the leading cited authors in social policy. According to Harris (2004, p 81) Marshall is the most influential and oft-cited work on citizenship published in Britain over the course of the 20th century. Barbalet (1988, Preface) states that today it is almost impossible to pick up a sociology journal that does not contain an article with at least some reference to his work. Heater (1990, p 265) writes that nothing quite so absorbs the attention of scholars and politicians when contemplating the nature of citizenship today as the social rights which adhere to its...

One of Marshall’s most memorable maxims casts citizenship as a ‘status extended to all those who are full members of the community’ (1950 [1992], p 18, also p 6). The key reference here – to community – remains somewhat obscure (it is worth noting that Marshall sometimes seems to use it interchangeably with ‘society’); it has attracted surprisingly little detailed analysis. I focus on Marshall’s depiction of equality as a defining feature of democratic community membership, that is, of citizenship. Marshall treats ‘equality’ as a social-political construction, that is, as the product of norms emerging from social interaction as well...

In this chapter, we reflect on T.H. Marshall’s theory from a gender perspective and explore the extent to which a gendered analysis of welfare provisions challenges the ‘universal’ and ‘inclusive’ claims of Marshall’s account of citizenship. In doing so we aim to consider the suitability, problems and possibilities of a Marshallian approach to citizenship from a gender perspective. We begin by considering women’s relationship with welfare: how women’s entitlement to social rights has been compromised because of their gender and the ways in which this creates their paradoxical inclusion and exclusion from citizenship. We then discuss some of the policy...

One of the most enduring debates about decentralised forms of government has been the tension between equity and diversity. Postwar conceptions of the welfare state have stressed the principle of state-wide equality of citizens’ rights of access to public services. But federal, regional and devolved forms of government enable territorially differentiated packages of public services. And decentralised government has become significantly more widespread and more powerful over the last 30 years (Marks et al, 2008). The scope for tension between the equity goals of the welfare state and the diversity of outcomes that decentralised government brings has grown.

This chapter...

Marshall’s essay on civil, political and social rights is framed by the nation-state. While many readers will find his reference to this state as England irritating, he does at least implicitly make a correct point, that by his time these rights were largely equalised over Great Britain (although not the United Kingdom). Civil rights were achieved during the 18th and 19th century. Political rights were equalised among the constituent nations with the uniform franchise provisions of 1884. The foundations of the welfare state under the Liberal government after 1906 and its development by the Labour government after 1945 were British...

While there are obvious connections between devolution in general and citizenship rights, the relationship between intergovernmental relations and citizenship rights is not immediately evident. At least between 1999 and 2007, intergovernmental relations were a relatively obscure and technical aspect of the working of devolution in the United Kingdom (as it is in many federal systems), more suited to discussions of the practicalities of public administration than to issues of principle like citizenship rights, or the macro-level discussions of the working of welfare states that often accompany them. However, this chapter will argue that the two are connected; that the UK’s...

Social citizenship rights only become meaningful when there is money to make them a reality. In federal or devolved political systems intergovernmental finances can determine who sets social citizenship rights. For instance, a system that provides devolved administrations with an unconditional block grant, when combined with substantial devolution of political powers, enables the administration to alter the citizenship rights available to its citizens. On the other hand, in a system where devolved administrations’ grants are conditional and key legislative powers remain with the federal or central government, it is central government that will dominate the country’s social citizenship agenda. But...

This chapter further explores the thesis in Chapter Two of this volume that Marshallian citizenship cannot be linked with simple notions of equality: that E does not MC (see also Daniel Wincott, Chapter Three, this volume; Christie et al, 2007). It focuses on the geography of citizenship, and examines the question: how uniform are ‘uniform’ services? Bogdanor (2003, in Wincott, 2006, p 170) asserts that New Labour displays a preference for diversity over uniformity, making it harder for a government of the left to secure equality of conditions in different parts of the UK. The welfare state was based on...

Quite often the point of decentralisation is to defend or extend social citizenship. As chapters in this book, and other works, have argued, that is to a large extent the case in the UK. And quite often the point of Europeanisation is said to be the same: to defend or extend social citizenship. The call of a European social model is a powerful one, and so is the call of a Europe of the regions. Put them together and the future for distinctive and extensive social citizenship rights looks bright.

But is it? This chapter asks what effects Europeanisation has...