Analysis Of T. H. Marshall's Citizenship And Social Class

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In a seminal essay entitled Citizenship and Social Class, T.H. Marshall proposes a three folded understanding of citizenship composed by civil, political and social rights. Marshall presents his argument through a synthesis of England history, showing how specific circumstances moulded a progressive and sequenced consolidation of citizenship. The expansion of capitalism during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries elicited the universalization of freedom as a vehicle to spread a “single uniform status” for individuals in order to participate in market-based economy (Marshall, 1950: 150). During the industrial era the evolution of a critical mass of workers marked the start of trade unions and its growing bargaining power, consolidating its political rights. As a result, the twentieth century witnessed the rise of social rights, gaining a prominent role in citizenship configuration. Even though such progressive consolidation of social rights do not abolished class divisions, certainly contributed to lessen the differences among individuals and social groups through minimum wages, a complex and exigent tax system, and the …show more content…

Social rights enable and give real content, with transformative potentialities, to political and civil rights.
In a wide and open interpretation of Marshall´s rights sequence, Guillermo O´Donnell has noticed that in many Latin American countries the historical path has been different, achieving first the political rights, and then, in a very poor and incomplete way, civil and social rights (2001: 604). This feature, however, is envisioned by O´Donnell as an opportunity to reach and consolidate the civic and social rights in the region through political means

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