Human rights, or citizenship?

169 Pages·2010·1.128 MB·English

by  Paulina Tambakaki

Human Rights, or Citizenship?
While human rights have been enjoying unprecedented salience, the concept
of the citizen has been significantly challenged. Rising ethical concerns, the
calling into question of state sovereignty and the consolidation of the human
rights regime have all contributed to a shift in focus: from an exclusionary,
problematic citizenship to human rights. Human Rights, or Citizenship? exam-
ines this shift and explores its implications for democracy. In an accessible
way, the book explores the arguments within contemporary democratic
theory that privilege law and legally codified human rights over citizenship,
questioning whether legalism alone could lead us to a better, more equitable
politics. Does the prioritisation of law and legally codified human rights lead
to depoliticisation? And do human rights always contest relations of
power and subordination? Addressing these questions, Human Rights, or
Citizenship? opens a debate about the role of citizenship and human rights in
democracy. It will be invaluable reading for anyone interested in democratic
politics today.
Paulina Tambakaki is a Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the Centre for
the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster. She has published
articles in Citizenship Studies, Critical Review of International Social and

Political Philosophy and Parallax.

Human Rights, or Citizenship?
Paulina Tambakaki
First published 2010
by Birkbeck Law Press
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Birkbeck Law Press
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
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an informa business
© 2010 Paulina Tambakaki
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tambakaki, Paulina.
Human rights, or citizenship? / Paulina Tambakaki.
p. cm.
1. Human rights. 2. Citizenship. 3. Political ethics. 4. Social
ethics. I. Title.
JC571.T1448 2010
323—dc22 2009045007
ISBN 0-203-88077-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-48163-5 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-88077-3 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0-415-48163-2 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0-203-88077-7 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 Citizenship and human rights in tension:
Changes, issues and approaches 6
2 Privileging human rights 34
3 The illusive promise of human rights 58
4 Politics and legalism 78
5 Back to citizenship, an agonistic conception 100
Conclusion: And human rights? 133
Notes 137
Bibliography 143
Index 158

Acknowledgements
The ideas and arguments for this book have developed out of my PhD disser-
tation, and various teachers, friends and colleagues have helped me to articu-
late them in the process. I am especially thankful to Chantal Mouffe for her
guidance, assistance and support throughout the years. Chantal has been a
constant source of inspiration for me and I have learned a lot from working
with her. I am deeply grateful. I would also like to thank Yannis Stavrakakis
for the insights he gave me into my work, and Andrew Schaap for inviting me
to the Exeter workshop on law and agonism. The exchanges and papers,
presented at the workshop were especially useful and beneficial. Thanks are
also due to David Chandler for reading the first chapter of the book, and to
the two anonymous referees from Routledge for their interesting suggestions
and comments. I would also like to thank Mary Ikoniadou for putting up
with me during the last stages of this project and to all those friends and
colleagues who, at various stages and in different ways, were particularly
encouraging: Lila Kotsi, Christina Christoforou, Melita Skamnaki, Yannis
Thomatos, Liza Griffin, Aidan Hehir and Tom Moore. My warmest thanks
go to Martyn Oliver for the many discussions we have had on my work, for
his technical assistance and for his support. I must not forget to thank
the staff from Routledge, especially Holly Davis and Colin Perrin; also to
Christopher Long an d Melvyn Dyer. Finally, I cannot find enough words
to express how grateful I am to my parents for their unconditional help and
support. Without them, this project would not have been possible. I dedicate
the book to them.
Paulina Tambakaki
December 2009

Introduction
Of the principles that define modern democratic politics, citizenship and
human rights transpire certainly as the most salient, indispensable and
talked-about principles. Protective and empowering at the same time, they
serve as the primary means for political subjectification and the anchoring
point for securing democratic aspirations. For is there a twentieth-century
struggle that has not been fought in the name of citizenship, if not human
rights? And is there a political achievement that has not been celebrated
in retrospect as a victory of citizenries and their basic rights? Although
in determining whether it is citizenship or human rights that frame
democratic struggles much depends on the historical period and particular
circumstances we focus on, it is not an exaggeration to assume that, when it
comes to consolidating democratic idea(l)s, both principles are central to
their promotion and pursuit.
But the case is not simply that citizenship and human rights constitute the
vehicle for practising democratic politics, it is also that they comprise the very
horizon that at a given time shapes and defines what we understand by and
expect of democratic politics. In this second respect, far from transpiring
as principles with fixed meaning, citizenship and human rights emerge as
signifiers overflown with meaning, the subject of continuous debate and

philosophical interpretation, democratic contention and transformation.
This openness at the heart of all analyses invoking citizenship and human
rights justifies partly why the two principles are rarely treated together as the
subject of a single enquiry.
But there are other curiously interesting reasons for this gap in the
literature. While citizenship is considered one of the privileged subject mat-
ters of political and democratic theory, linked with explorations of nations
and states, human rights are the focus of legal theory, one of the principal
normative vocabularies expounded by lawyers and critical legal theorists.
Given thus the disciplinary divide between the two giants of the social sci-
ences, the norm has been encouraged to pursue separate rather than single
investigations into the two ideas. In addition, another divide, forceful for the
most part of the twentieth century, has further consolidated this same norm.