Understanding Freedom, Responsibility, and Citizenship
Freedom:
- External Freedom (Action): The ability to perform intended actions without obstacles or constraints, whether political or social.
- Internal Freedom (Choice): The ability to choose among alternatives without predetermined moral options.
Determinism: The posture that denies freedom, defending that our choices and actions are conditioned or predetermined.
- Natural Limits: Natural laws govern everything, including human behavior, which is not free unless subject to natural coincidence.
- Genetic Determinism: Our behavior is conditioned by our genes.
- Environmental Determinism: Circumstances surrounding a person affect their behavior.
- Economic Determinism: The economic model of society determines our behavior.
- Theological Determinism: Gods or supernatural beings predetermine our destiny.
Freedom and Responsibility: We affirm the choice of the individual and, therefore, their responsibility.
- Responsibility: The ability to assume the consequences of our actions for ourselves and others.
- Moral Responsibility: The ability to assume the consequences of our actions. We are morally responsible for the acts we have chosen.
- Consequences: We are not responsible for acts when we ignore their results, provided such ignorance was inevitable. We are responsible for decisions, even when we don’t know all the surrounding circumstances and consequences.
Voluntariness: By acting under strong internal or external compulsion, we are not responsible for our actions because our choice is nullified. However, sometimes we cannot choose what we really want but are obligated to choose from limited possibilities. We are responsible for our actions within this limited range of choice.
Citizenship
- Greek Citizenship (Political): Direct participation of citizens in political affairs. Citizens were considered equal before the law and the Assembly, but women, metics, and slaves were excluded.
- Roman Citizenship (Juridical): Citizens have rights and duties and receive the protection of the law. The concept included universality of citizenship since all who belonged to the empire were Roman citizens, though women and slaves were still excluded.
Modern State and Citizenship
- Absolute Monarchy: Centralization of power where subjects must submit to the ruler identified with the state. Individuals are not citizens because they waive their rights and freedoms in exchange for protection by the State.
- Liberal State: Emerged after the English Revolution of 1688 with a parliamentary structure. The idea of citizenship is retrieved, with the government guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of citizens, whose sovereignty cannot be infringed.
- 19th and 20th Century Citizenship: The concept of citizenship broadened to include not only political rights but also economic and social rights. Struggles of the feminist and labor movements, and the capitalist system, made it increasingly necessary for the population to be considered citizens. This idea of social citizenship is embodied in the UDHR.