Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2010
Summary
When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people, and for every portion thereof, the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.
French Constitution of 1793, Article 35The highest … duty of a citizen is to fight valiantly for his convictions when he is in a minority. The smaller the minority, the more unpopular it is, and the more violent are the attacks upon it, so much louder is the call of duty to defend one's opinions. To … face ‘the multitude hasting to do evil’ – this is the role and test of genuine virtue and courage. Now this is, or seems to be, a more formidable task the vaster the community becomes. It is harder to make your voice heard against the roar of the ocean than against the whistling squall that sweeps down over a mountain lake.
James Bryce, Promoting Good Citizenship, 1909Looking Backward
Throughout this book it has been emphasised that it is what a person does rather than what they get which makes them a citizen. If there are corollary duties, they always arise from the right to do something. Obligations are ethical standards of a different sort. In such a perspective, looking backward from 1995 to 1901, we can state that Australian citizenship has made great advances. In 1901 Australians were subjects, and that is by definition the passive condition of being ‘in subjection’. By 1995 they were much more ‘active citizens’, with the potential to make the laws under which they lived.
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- From Subject to CitizenAustralian Citizenship in the Twentieth Century, pp. 248 - 286Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997