Democratization of the Family

Abstract

Democratization of the family' might seem to confound notions of the political and private, the rights and obligations of the citizen and the intimacy of the family. A less conventional theory of modernity is characterized by the fact that the codes of behaviour which permeate it have previously been considered separate. One illustration of this is the interpenetration of civil freedom and family, which is the focus of this article. Two arguments are presented: first, some definitions and distinctions regarding the sociology of political freedom, which would also have to become the sociology of citizenship; second, this is applied to families, particularly to the situation of children.