Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany

Rogers Brubaker

The state, wrote Aristotle, "is a compound made up of citizens; and this compels us to consider who should properly be called a citizen and what a citizen really is." These are the questions, with their broad implications for the modern nation-state, that Rogers Brubaker addresses here. In a time when the flow of information, capital, and immigration has blurred the definition of the state, Brubaker's sustained analysis of the origins and vicissitudes of citizenship in France and Germany reveals much about civic boundaries in the modern world. The difference between French and German definitions of citizenship is instructive - and, for millions of immigrants from North Africa, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, decisive. Brubaker explores this difference - between the territorial basis of the French citizenry and the German emphasis on blood descent - and shows how it translates into rights...

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