Was citizenship born with the Enlightenment? Developments of citizenship between Britain and France and “everyday citizenship” Implications

In this article I offer an analysis of the history of citizenship in the UK by showing the low level of systematicity and the high complexity of this institution. By comparing it with the binary French case, I consider the two models of citizenship as two institutions with different goals, arguing that the diffusion of the French model has turned British citizenship into an insular case. I further show that the consequences of the different histories of citizenship can be found in everyday conceptions of citizenship in the UK and elsewhere, but that these consequences are limited to the salience and not to the content of the concept.