CIAO DATE: 06/2011
February 2011
The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs
This paper inquires into the implications of extending the voting franchise to citizens living outside their national territory. It argues that the recent increase in the extension of political rights began as a restorative exercise for citizens regarded as disenfranchised for various reasons, and that this is in keeping with the classic expansion of rights within the traditional model of the democratic nation-state. This reinforces, rather than challenges, the principles of the sovereign state system. However, the paper then argues that citizens abroad have distinctive characteristics that complicate core conceptions of the nation-state: defining the scope of membership, signifying belonging, and negotiating rights and obligations. Because of this, the extension of the franchise does potentially add a transformative dimension to discussions about political community, national identity, and citizenship. Fieldwork in these three areas could constitute the core of an emerging research program into the possible transformational effects on the nation-state resulting from extending political rights to citizens abroad.
Resource link: Extending Political Rights to Citizens Abroad: Implications for the Nation-state [PDF] - 129K