Demography and social citizenship

This chapter reviews some of the more significant developments in population dynamics in recent decades, and explores their relationship to the prospects of citizenship in years to come. It focuses on the demographic aspects of the matter. Particularly against the background of persistent economic difficulty, Japan presents an example of the major challenges facing ageing societies with substantial obligations deriving from their social welfare arrangements. The chapter examines the fertility side of the demographic equation. The demographic developments have important consequences for conventional patterns of citizenship, which have typically presupposed a relatively coherent and integrated society. The model of citizenship that was developed around the theories of T. H. Marshall took national cultural coherence for granted. Citizenship developed with the rise of the modern nation-state, and documentation was required to define individuals who could legitimately claim welfare benefits. In achieving administrative control over a national territory. The process of bureaucratic consolidation, typically involving taxation and conscription, has produced top-down, state-driven citizenship.