The use of rights and citizenship has exploded with groups of many different types demanding and in some cases obtaining new rights. Many complain of a cacophony of rights claims and the comparative silence on obligations and duties to fulfill those rights. At the same time, immigrants in many countries clamor at the gates of industrialized nations with claims for a new citizenship that will socially and politically integrate them into a society with opportunities to live and prosper. Rights and duties are trumpeted and denounced with great emotion, diverse definitions, shallow usage, and uncertain relationships between concepts. What can citizens, politicians, and social scientists make of these claims for inclusion, obligation, and rights of citizenship?

Although most advanced industrialized countries cover nearly all of their inhabitants with at least some legal, political, and social rights, citizenship rights clearly remain contentious. Citizens and subjects demand rights, but their success depends on the ebb and flow of the power of contending political parties, interest groups, and social movements. Many libertarian conservatives and radicals see citizenship obligations as overly enforced, but communitarians and neo-conservatives see obligations as being in steep decline.