Citizen Duties Defined Part 12: The Most Commonly Cited Duties

This exploration has yielded some insight on what is ‘typically’ viewed as the duties of a citizen. Some items are almost always in any list. What are they, and should they always be included?

Almost always

1. Vote: Of course, I have some clarifying questions regarding what exactly is expected of a citizen with regard to voting. Nonetheless, it’s almost cited in every ingle list, poll or discussion outlining citizenship duties.
2. Be informed: This, in my opinion, is the most important of duties and also the most unfulfilled. Our Democracy simply doesn’t work without an informed citizenry.
3. Participate in politics: This is the second or third most mentioned duty. It is the most unexplained. What actually does ‘participate’ mean? How much must one participate? What must one do to be a participant?
4. Serve in military when called upon: This is self explanatory, but in practice, only males are typically expected to serve. Should this change in this era of equality? I would argue no, but would not protest someone who says yes.
5. Serve on a jury: It is assumed if called upon. However, if you have never been called, is it your duty to attempt jury service?

Frequently

1. Volunteer:
2. Obey laws:
3. Respect rights of others:
4. Tolerant of differences:
5. Protect the environment:
6. Allegiance to the country:

I believe every one of these items should be in the ‘must do’ list for citizenship. Each one of these actions are necessary for a fully functioning democracy. There is a reason they are the most frequently cited duties in the sources I’ve found to this point. I don’t disagree with any of these items being duties one must fulfill in order to be considered a good citizen.

Limits to Duties

What I will say though, is there needs to be some clarification on limits. For example, when is allegiance to a country not expected? Can an unwavering allegiance to your country not only be counter to your state of citizenship within your country, but as a citizen of the world, or a citizen of a particular community? Can that allegiance to country run counter to your support of democracy itself?

For a number of these items, there exists a grey area of expectations that can be explored. I’ll do that for each at some point over this project. Suffice it to say, that some level of each of these actions should be expected if one aims to be a quality citizen.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash