In Liberalism, Nationalism, Citizenship, Ronald Beiner engages critically with a wide range of important political thinkers and current debates in light of the Aristotelian idea that shared citizenship is an essential human calling. Virtually every aspect of contemporary political experience – globalization, international migration, secessionist movements, the politics of multiculturalism – pose urgent challenges to modern citizenship. Beiner’s work on the philosophy of citizenship is essential reading not just for students of politics and political philosophy, but for all those who rightly sense that these kinds of recent challenges demand an ambitious rethinking of the nature of political community.

Ronald Beiner's profile page

Ronald Beiner is a professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

This book is an important addition to the rapidly proliferating literature on questions of citizenship. Ronald Beiner offers a rich normative-philosophical reflection and valorization of the idea of citizenship, specifically to demonstrate that neither liberalism nor nationalism fully honours what he calls the “civic idea.” ... Though the book does not ultimately supply a radical theory of citizenship, it does make a valuable contribution to critiques of liberalism and nationalism as well as theories of citizenship and community. The analysis is contextualized, nuanced well-organized, and showered with lively links between theory and practice. It presents a skilful overview of contemporary debates by addressing some of the most important and difficult questions of citizenship and community, and persuasively resituates the concept of citizenship. It is a useful and relevant book for students of politics and political theory.

University of Toronto Quarterly, Winter 2004/05