The Double Erosion of Liberal Citizenship: Economization and Moralization

Contemporary liberal state citizenship is hollowed-out from two sides simultaneously. One is economization: it foregrounds the capacity to “contribute” and to be self-providing as criterion for naturalization, and it shows the imprint of neoliberalism as political-ordering and subject-forming principle. The other is moralization: it asks certain applicants for citizenship not just for observing the law but internalizing and identifying with its underlying values, and it occurs in a context of allegedly failing Muslim immigration, particularly in Western Europe. Both tendencies challenge foundational elements of liberal citizenship: the notion, central to social liberalism since John Stuart Mill, that society is non-contractual and a community of fate, with respect to economization; and the Kantian distinction between morality and legality, or between belief and conduct, with respect to moralization. I illustrate both trends with recent citizenship reforms in Western Europe, with a focus on Germany, Britain, France, and Switzerland.