Fourthly, as a result of, especially, both
the first and third meanings, today we often
use ‘citizenship’ to signify not just membership
in some group but certain standards of
proper conduct. Some people – those who
contribute to the well-being of their political
community, church, lunch club, or other
human association, and do so frequently,
valuably, at some cost to themselves – are
understood to be the ‘true’ citizens of those
bodies. Others who free-ride on their efforts
are mere members who do not seem to understand,
embrace, or embody what citizenship
really means. When communities, public or
private, give ‘citizenship’ awards to some of
their members, it is this usage they invoke. It
obviously implies that only ‘good’ citizens
are genuinely citizens in the full meaning of
the term. This meaning represents a merger
of the republican conception of participatory
citizenship with the now common practice of
using citizenship to refer to membership in
any of an almost infinite variety of human
groups.