1. Politics, Power &
Resistance
Week 9: Citizenship & Inequality I
A/Prof Alana Lentin
a.lentin@uws.edu.au

2. Overview
Classical ideas of citizenship
Critiquing citizenship
The myth of the classless society
Capital and Inequality: Wilkinson and Piketty
Redressing inequality

3. Classical views of citizenship
T.H. Marshall:
Civil rights
Political rights
Social rights

4. Critiquing citizenship
“We may all be human, but humanity has always excluded, despised and
degraded some of its parts. Humanity is not one... Human rights... do not
belong to humans; they help us construct who and how one becomes human”
Costas Douzinas (2009)

5. Australia:The Great
Classless Society
Citizenship based on displacement &
dispossession
The ‘fair go’
Challenging the egalitarian myth
Inequality and federation

6. Capital & Inequality
“[W]hen people in the same social class, at the same level of income or education, are compared
across countries, those in more equal societies do better. So, at any given level of personal income
or education, someone's quality of life will be higher if he or she has the same level of income or
education but lives in a more equal society. The conclusion is that greater equality usually makes
most difference to the least well off, but still produces some benefits for the well off.”
Wilkinson and Pickett (2011)
Thomas Piketty (2014)
1. The rich get richer faster than the
economy can grow
2. Income inequality is likely to get worse
3. Inequality will not self-correct
4. Top managers: No evidence that higher
wages lead to more productivity
5. Balancing the books makes matters
worse

7. Redressing inequality
Who does poverty and inequality benefit?
Is inequality a matter of personal responsibility?
What role, if any, should be played by the state?
What measures should be taken to alleviate
poverty and inequality?

8. Limits of rights-based
citizenship?
Which groups/individuals
gets left out?
Is this always obvious?
What about non-citizens?