Defining Citizenship
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Dennis C. Mueller
This article employs the methodology of public choice, or constitutional political economy, to the question of how citizenship should be defined in a constitution. All members of a community or an assembly representative of all members writes a constitution. Each participant in the constitution-drafting process is uncertain of his or her future identity under the constitution and thus chooses a constitution that maximizes the expected utility of all future citizens. The article describes the optimal conditions within this framework for: (1) granting citizenship to those born and raised in the country; (2) granting citizenship to those immigrating into the country; and (3) withdrawing citizenship from those who emigrate from the country. The article also discusses why it might be desirable to require that people pass certain tests and take a loyalty oath to the constitution before being awarded the privilege of voting.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Constitutional Consequentialism: Bargain Democracy versus Median Democracy
- Virtue and Self-Interest in the Design of Constitutional Institutions
- Economic Analysis and the Design of Constitutional Courts
- Ruling Majorities and Reasoning Pluralities
- The Condorcet Jury Theorem and Judicial Decisionmaking: A Reply to Saul Levmore
- Defining Citizenship
- Economic Culturalism: A comment on Dennis Mueller, Defining Citizenship
- Party Primaries as Collective Action with Constitutional Ramifications: Israel as a Case Study
- The Primaries System and Its Constitutional Effect: Where is the Revolution?
- On Constitutional Processes and the Delegation of Power, with Special Emphasis on Israel and Central and Eastern Europe
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Constitutional Consequentialism: Bargain Democracy versus Median Democracy
- Virtue and Self-Interest in the Design of Constitutional Institutions
- Economic Analysis and the Design of Constitutional Courts
- Ruling Majorities and Reasoning Pluralities
- The Condorcet Jury Theorem and Judicial Decisionmaking: A Reply to Saul Levmore
- Defining Citizenship
- Economic Culturalism: A comment on Dennis Mueller, Defining Citizenship
- Party Primaries as Collective Action with Constitutional Ramifications: Israel as a Case Study
- The Primaries System and Its Constitutional Effect: Where is the Revolution?
- On Constitutional Processes and the Delegation of Power, with Special Emphasis on Israel and Central and Eastern Europe
