CHAPTER ONE

UNDERSTANDING CIVICS AND ETHICS

1.1. Introduction
 Civics and Ethics are two separate fields of studies in
social sciences dealing more with citizenship and morality
respectively
 They could be taught as an integrated interdisciplinary
field of social science.
In different countries, these courses taught differently
depending on the distinct realities and challenges of states
and societies despite some common content.
 Even within a given state, for instance, in Ethiopia the
course has been changing with the change of regimes
 During Emperor Hailesillasie name of the course was
Gebregeb Timhirt
 During Dergue regime (PDRE) changed to Political
Education,
 During the current EPRDF regime (FDRE) once again
changed to Civic and Ethical Education.
 It may have different nomenclatures depending on the
different meanings, goals, contents and emphasis.
 The following are some of the synonymous courses in
different countries (courses similar to civics).
 Courses Similar to Civics
 Civic Education (Civics)
 Citizenship Education
Political Science
Social studies
Courses Similar to Ethics
Ethical Education (Ethics),
Moral Education
Character Education,
Value Education
1.2. Definition of Civics

To understand the word civics, we need to briefly

define related terminologies like citizen,
citizenship, government and state.
 Accordingly, citizen is a person who legally
belongs to a country and who has rights/privileges
and lives under protection of a state(s).
 Rights and privileges are enjoyed because of the
established relationship (citizenship) between state
and citizen.
Thus, citizenship is a legally established relationship
Cont’ed
between state and citizens.
R/p not only entitles citizens with rights and

privileges but also imposes duties and obligations to

be rendered to the state.

Therefore, Civic is the study of the rights and

responsibilities of citizenship or a science of
privileges and obligations of citizens.
Obligations may include:
 loyalty to protect state interest,
 contributing in terms of political, social,
and economic life through participation
 contributing to the communal life in terms
of paying tax, human resource, and others, in
return state provides those necessary public
services.
1. one of the fundamental and universal interests of all
citizens in all nations is getting state protection.
I.e, provision of security is one of the principal
responsibility of all state regardless of their size,
power and other features.
State should safeguard every person and their
interests in terms of economic, physical, emotional,
and psychological wellbeing from any threat of harm
or abuse.
 To fulfill, these citizens demand state established
security institutions like police, military and judicial
organs.

2. Other benefits of membership to state may range

from pride of one’s own history, culture and success as
an independent country

3. Entitlement to social services like water supply,

access to electricity, transportation network (road,
railway, water and air), public institutions (court,
police, administrative and so on).
Government is a totality of political officials those who

run state activities together with institutions in which

they organized.
 Often organized in political institutions like executive,

legislative, and judiciary branches of government.

These institutions are responsible to implement and

monitor (executive), formulate rules and policies

(legislative), to allocate social and political values as well
as adjudicate whenever there is conflict (judiciary).
 Civics is the study of government with attention to theCont’ed
role of
citizens’ ― as opposed to external factors ― in the operation

and oversight of government.

Therefore, as an interdisciplinary flied of study, civics

studies :
 The theoretical and practical aspects of citizenship,

Rights and the duties of citizens to each other as

members of a political body and to the government.
 Includes the study of civil law, civil code, and the study
of government with attention to the role of citizens.
 1.3. The Historical Development of Citizenship
A. Citizenship in Ancient Greece
 The first real instance of citizenship began in ancient
Greece
 The modern ideal/model/ of citizenship was first
articulated by the ancient Athenians and Romans.
 In ancient Greece C/ship arose from an appreciation for
the importance of freedom.
 Athenian citizenship was exclusive.

 Citizens had a higher status than non-citizens, such as

 Methods used to determine whether someone could be a citizen
or not could be based on:
 wealth,

the amount of taxes one paid,

 or political participation,

 or heritage if both parents were citizens of the polis (city state).

 C/ship was based on the way people lived in the ancient Greek
time, in small-scale organic communities of the polis.
 It was not seen as a separate activity from the private life of
the individual person, in the sense that there was not a
distinction between public and private life.
 Obligations of citizenship were deeply connected into one’s
everyday life in the polis.
 Greek sense of citizenship may have arisen from military
necessity.
 Thus political participation was linked with military
effectiveness.
 Athenian citizenship was based on the obligations of
citizens to community rather than rights given to its
members.
 B/c people had a strong affinity with the polis;

 Also, citizens of the polis saw obligations to the

community as an opportunity to be virtuous.
 It was a source of honor and respect.

 In Athens, citizens were both ruler and ruled.

 Imp’t political and judicial offices were rotated to widen
participation and prevent corruption ,
 All citizens had the right to speak and vote in the political
assembly; to be protected by law, to own land and to
participate in public worship;
 Duties included an obligation to obey the law and to
serve in the armed forces which could be costly in terms
of buying or making expensive war equipment or in
risking one’s own life.
 B. Citizenship in Ancient Rome
 Roman citizenship was similar to the Greek model but
differed in substantive ways.
Greek ideas of citizenship in the city state, such as:
 the principles of equality under the law,
 civic participation in government and,
 notion that “no one citizen should have much power for
too long”, were carried into the Roman world.
 Unlike the Greek city state which enslaved captured
peoples following a war, Rome offered relatively generous
terms to its captives, including chances for captives to
have a “second category of Roman citizenship.
 Conquered peoples could not vote in the Rome assembly

 But had full protections of the law and could make

economic contact and could marry Roman citizens.
 The Roman government pitted the upper class patrician
interest against the lower-order working groups known as
the plebeian class
 According to Burchell citizenship meant different things
depending on what social class one belonged to:
 For upper class men, citizenship was an active chance to
influence public life;
 For lower-class men it was about a respect for private
rights.

 The Roman conception of citizenship had a greater

emphasis than the Greek in the sense that the Roman
emphasis on law changed the nature of citizenship
 It was more impersonal, universal, multiform, having
different degrees and applications.
 In the Roman Empire, polis citizenship expanded from
small scale communities to the entire empire.
 In early years of the Roman Republic, citizenship was a
prize relationship which was not widely extended.
 Later on, the Romans realized that granting citizenship to
people from all over the empire legitimized Roman rule
over the conquered areas.
 The Roman conception of citizenship was relatively more
complex and nuanced than Athenian conception.
 It usually did not involve political participation
 Roman citizenship was not a single black and white
category of citizen versus non-citizen
 But there were more gradations and relationship possible.

 Women were respected to a great extent with a secure

status as “subsidiary citizens.
 Citizenship rules generally had the effect of building
loyalty throughout the empire among highly diverse
populations.
C. Citizenship in Medieval Times
 During the middle ages, the lord-vassal relation dominated the
world
 Vassals provided service and loyalty, while lords provided
protection.
 In the feudal system, there were relationship characterized as
reciprocal with bonds between lords and vassals.
 Basis of feudal arrangement was controlling over land.

 Loyalty of a person was not for a law, or to a constitution, or to

an abstract concept such as a nation,
 loyalty was to a person, namely as a knight, lord or king.

 Feudalism’s reciprocal obligation system gave rise to the

idea of the individual and the citizen.
 Magna Carta, while a sort of feudal document, marked a
transition away from feudalism
 The Magna Carta posited that the liberty, security and
freedom of individuals were inviolable.
 Gradually the ties linking vassals with lords were replaced
with contractual and more impersonal relationship
D. Citizenship in Modern Times
 During European Middle Ages, citizenship was usually
associated with cities.
 Nobility in the aristocracy used to have privileges of a
higher nature than the commoners.
 Rise of citizenship was linked to the rise of republicanism;
since if a republic belongs to its citizens then kings have less
power
citizenship related not to a person such as a lord or count,
but rather related a person to the state on the basis of more
 Citizenship was seen as a result of birth, that is, a
birthright.
 Nations often welcomed foreigners with vital skills and
capabilities and came to accept these new people under a
process of naturalization.
 Citizens were people who voluntarily chose allegiance to
the state, who accepted the legal status of citizenship with
its rights and responsibilities, who obeyed its laws, who
loyal to the state.

 American and subsequent French declarations of rights
were instrumental in linking the notion of fundamental
rights of popular sovereignty
 governments drew their legitimacy and authority from
the consent of the governed
 The revolutionary spirit created a sense of broadening
inclusion
 French Revolution linked citizenship with popular
sovereignty
 Citizenship became more inclusive and democratic
3.3. Aspects of Citizenship

A. The social Aspects: refers to the rights and duties of

citizens.
 These rights and duties of citizenship are directly related to
the social and cultural norms and values.
 Adoption and marriage can be mentioned as they are social
aspects of citizenship.
 In the case of adoption, the full rights and responsibilities
of parenthood are transformed from natural to social
parenthood.
B. The Legal Aspects:
 “citizenship entails a legal relationship between an
individual and a state originating under terms prescribed by
the law of that state and giving rise to certain duties and
rights, which such law attaches to citizenship’’.
 Different countries pursue different laws in granting and
denying citizenship status.
C. The Political Aspect
 The political system in a country affects the citizenship
status
 In a dictatorial or authoritarian political system, the rights
and privileges of citizenship are enjoyed by a small group of
the society
 But the majorities are merely required to fulfill their
responsibilities or duties as members of that country.
 In a democratic system, however, citizens are expected to
express their allegiance to their nation and obey the laws.
3.4. The Process of Acquiring Citizenship
 Varies from country to country depending up on the
existing specific laws of each country.
 There is no clear cut uniformity in acquiring citizenship
status.
 There is no common standard that govern all state of the
world.
 D/t states pursue their own specific laws in granting and
denying citizenship.
 Tw0 ways of acquiring citizenship are by birth, and by law
A. Citizenship by Birth
 Majority of peoples in almost all countries acquire
citizenship at birth.
 The two different principles and modes of acquiring
citizenship by birth are:

1. jus soli and 2. jus sanguine

1. Jus Soli- is a Latin phrase to mean right of soil.

 A child born in a particular state automatically becomes a
citizen of the state in which he/ she is born irrespective of
his/her parent’s citizenship.
 What matters most is the birth place of the child.

 A child born in one state territory has the right to acquire

citizenship but this is not always true to all.
 Example: Delegates of foreign countries with diplomatic
mission and international organization representatives and
workers cannot claim citizenship within their working
territory.
2. Jus –Sanguinis- It is also a Latin phrase to mean the
right of blood/law of blood/.
 It does not consider the place of birth as important.

 This principle give the child the citizenship of its parents

automatically.
 What matters most in jus sanguine is that the citizenship
of the parents, irrespective of the birth place.
 As far as Ethiopia is concerned, it is clearly stated in
proclamation No 378/2003 Article 3 that any person shall be
an Ethiopian national by descent where both or either of his
parents is Ethiopian.
B. Citizenship by Law (Naturalization)
 Is the alternative method of acquiring citizenship after
birth.
 It is a process by which a state confers its citizenship on an
individual, who is originally not its citizen, as a matter of
some involuntary acts and intention of the individual.
 The individual is expected to fulfill some sets of criteria set
up by that particular country.
 Citizenship by naturalization embraces marriage, option,
acquisition of domicile, and so on.
1. Marriage: If a person marries a citizen of another country,
s/he can have the possibility of acquiring citizenship her/his
spouse.
 The person has the option of choosing citizenship of
her/his spouse and deleting her/his own country.

2. Freely granting citizenship – Example U.S.A government

grants C/ship to foreigners living in the country or abroad by
DV /Diversified Immigrant Visa/.
3 . Emigration – if a person emigrates due to political, social
or economic reason, he/she could ask and get citizenship of
the country where he/she is immigrated to.

4. Option - a person of multiple citizenships has a possibility

to choose his/her citizenship

5. Acquisition of Domicile - This is a way of getting

citizenship status when the person is able to get permanent
residence

6. Appointment as government official: - This is

citizenship by job. Some countries grant citizenship to a
person (s) who is/are assigned to work within their country.
7. Special/ functional Nationality- is giving citizenship to a
person who has made an outstanding contribution to the
interest of the country that grants citizenship.

Example: Dr. Karl Heinz Boehm the founder of Menschen fur

Menschen.
1.6. Modes of Losing Citizenship
 Different states pursue different principles in granting
citizenship status
 Various states also adopt different principles to deny c/ship
on those citizens who violate the nation’s citizenship laws.
 There are four ways/modes of losing C/ship. These are :

A. Renunciation (Expatriation)- is a process by which a

person renounces his/her citizenship and seek the citizenship
of another country according to his/her choice.
The reasons for renunciation are:
 when the state harasses the person (s) and

 when the person dislikes the policies or politics or

ideologies pursued by the state.

B. Deprivation - a person who is found guilty of committing

serious crimes against the state may be deprived of his /her
citizenship.

Some of the crimes could be:

 make access national secrets to alien country

 collaborate with the enemy force in time of war

 undertaking diplomatic, economic, political and military
intelligence to another within his/her state.

C. Substitution - citizenship may be lost when a person's

original citizenship is substituted by another state, which he
acquires through naturalization.

This could be because of annexation of territory by another

state and secession.

D. Lapse: mode of losing C/ship if the person stays outside of

his/her country for a long and continues period.

e.g. If Indian citizen stays out of India continuously for more

than 7 years, the person will lose his/her Indian citizenship