More recently, this trend has echoed around
the world from Zapatistas to Chechen and
Kurdish nationalists, framing their struggles
in the language of rights and recognition.
While some, such as Michael Ignatieff,
(2001) have dubbed these trends the ‘rights
revolution’, the articulation of rights for
various groups has been the most recurring
theme of ‘Western’ political history: from
ancient Greek and Roman peasants and
plebeians to Italian artisans and French
workers, articulating rights as claims to
recognition has always invoked the ideal of
citizenship. What has been happening in the
past few decades then is neither revolutionary
nor new but has been a recurrent, if not
a fundamental, aspect of democratic or
democratizing polities. What is new is the
economic, social and cultural conditions
that make possible the articulation of new
claims and the content and form of these
claims as citizenship rights.