A tale of two citizenships

Thesis



This thesis examines the development of citizenship as a political concept in twentieth-century Britain, by considering how different political and intellectual circumstances shaped changes in ideas about citizenship. By examining how and why the conception of citizenship formulated in the early twentieth century by the idealist philosopher Henry Jones (1852-1922), differed from that articulated by the sociologist and theorist of the post-war welfare state T. H. Marshall (1893-1981) in the years after the Second World War, the work identifies a process by which changing structures of thought shifted the meaning of citizenship over the years.

The thesis consists of three major sections. In the first section, the contrasting personal histories of Jones and Marshall are presented. The effects of different social realities and personal contexts on the production of political ideas are considered. The next section then examines the different idea environments within which Jones and Marshall developed their thought. The differences between the idealist intellectual framework represented by Jones, and the systematic sociological approach represented by Marshall, are mapped out. Finally, the conceptual structures of the two different conceptions of citizenship that emerged in Britain in the course of the twentieth century are examined; and the way in which changing ideas about citizenship were played out in practical debates over social policy is outlined in an analysis of the debates over the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws of 1905-9 and the 1948 National Assistance Act.

By unravelling the intellectual and ideological processes that have occurred in the development and articulation of particular conceptions of citizenship, the work makes an original contribution to historical understandings of the distinction between 'idealist' and 'positivist' idea structures in twentieth-century Britain, and of the role played by such structures in shaping the development of the welfare state as a policy option.

Authors: Low, E; Low, Eugenia

• Alternative title: Henry Jones, T.H. Marshall and the changing conceptions of citizenship in twentieth-century Britain
• Publication date: 2000
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-0nxx78b9p
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Subjects: Great Britain; Citizenship