Conceptus “citizen” and “subject”: dynamics and prospects of development

Abstract

The study revealed the etymology, historical, legal development, the essence and content of the concepts of “citizen” and “subject”, “citizenship” and “allegiance”. An important influence on the content of these terms is derived from the concept of “civic spirit”, which absorbs the political will and attitude of the state towards its citizens, citizens towards the state and society. Citizenship is not static and is a dynamically developing legal and social institution from allegiance to post-national, global, supranational, ecological and digital citizenship, but not to new allegiance. For the concept “citizen”, the democratic vector of development is the enrichment of a person’s status not only with rights but also with the actual content of a citizen-state relationship: from a city dweller to a person who is subject to authority and has full democratic legal status, high index and competences of civic spirit and having a stable legal relationship with the state (as a rule, the republican form of government). In a moral sense, it is obvious that, if a citizen sees democracy in the order that best corresponds to his views, then, from the point of view of an equitable distribution of the burden, everyone should contribute to it.