Introduction
The purpose of this article is to better understand the shifting meaning of citizenship and the often-contested role it has played as an integrative device at the local,national and global levels in Western societies. It was the Greeks who invented the notion of citizenship or the
idea that certain members of society formed a partnership that gave them the right to share in the making and execution of public policy (Finer, 1997: 86). Initially,citizenship was therefore associated with the Greek city and – in the 4th century BC – to be a citizen meant to be a member of a city-state or a polis (see the first section – Understanding the notion of citizenship).