Search

This article explores the evolution of naturalization in Western Europe and the United States from the early modern period to the end of the nineteenth century. It discusses three phases: naturalization as an economic privilege in the early modern period; naturalization as a grant of political rights reserved for a minority of the population; and naturalization as access to membership to a community of equals. It argues that naturalization, while mainly relevant to individuals moving from one country to another, also involved aspects of multilateralism throughout: naturalized citizens possess a status negotiated by their original and new states of membership, but this status can also be of great relevance in interaction with third countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does citizenship exist beneath the level of the nation-state? An enduring historiography insists on the essentially national character of modern citizenship, but this article argues on the contrary that locally defined identities have continued to exercise an important influence on the social and political rights of citizens. These local identities are not just relics of composite states with different membership criteria; rather, spatially complex citizenship is the norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]