CITIZENSHIP AND THE PLACE OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE - LAW, COMMUNITY, AND POLITICAL-CULTURE IN THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY

Democratic revolutions and global transitions have again thrust debate s about citizenship and social class onto the sociological agenda. I u se institutional and relational/network analysis to reconsider three t acit assumptions of these debates: (1) citizenship must be defined as a status; (2) capitalist development and citizenship formation must oc cur together; and (3) theories of citizenship must be based on the rel ationship between the state and capitalism. These assumptions are exam ined in T. H. Marshall's ([1949] 1964) classic historical sociological work, Citizenship and Social Class. By examining Marshall's thesis in its original empirical context of eighteenth-century English history, I demonstrate that varying patterns of institutional relationships am ong law, communities, and political cultures were central factors in s haping modem citizenship rights. Focusing on regional variation in cit izenship practices among eighteenth-century English working communitie s, I suggest that: (1) citizenship should be redefined as an ''institu ted process'' rather than a status; (2) the development of citizenship rights depended on the nexus of England's national legal infrastructu re and the varying community capacities for participatory association; and (3) future research on citizenship and democratization expand bey ond a focus on states and capitalism to include a sociology of relatio nships among public spheres, community associational life, and pattern s of political culture.