The main aim of the summer course is to examine if, when, and how citizenship regimes are used by authoritarian and illiberal governments as a means of weakening the rights of undesired populations and to include targeted groups to strengthen the legitimacy and the power of the government. In addition to exploring citizenship politics and legislation in times of democratic decline, the course will also investigate the micro-politics of citizenship by looking into how individuals use, respond to, hijack, or ignore these policies. Such an approach springs from the need to address two main intellectual challenges, which are rooted in the relationship between democracy and citizenship.
Scholarship has long examined the construction of membership in democratic societies, often associating open and expansive citizenship with democracy, inclusion, and pluralism. Far less academic energy has been dedicated to the trajectories of citizenship policies in countries, which have become the site of growing illiberalism and democratic decline. By exploring citizenship policies at the time of democratic decline, the course will fill an important gap in citizenship studies scholarship.
- Course coordinator: Adria Niessner
- Course coordinator: Emma Wolf