While ‘virtue’ had become unfashionable
in mainstream political science, it has been
revived in contemporary political and sociological
theory by writers like Alasdair
MacIntyre (1981) and Martha Nussbaum
(2001). In this respect there is an important
division between liberal (Anglo-American)
and cultural (continental) theories of citizenship.
The liberal theory is minimalist. It
purports that the role of the state is to protect
the freedom of its citizens and that it can
best achieve this aim by removing the obstacles
to free exchange between individuals in
the market place. The role of the state is
utilitarian, namely to maximize the happiness
of the majority, but this ‘happiness’ is
most effectively and efficiently measured by
their individual wealth. Because for writers
like Jeremy Bentham and J.S. Mill, push-pin
is as good as poetry (that is, they are equal
because they both produce happiness), it
is not sensible for states to take much interest
in culture. With the dominance of
neo-liberalism in state policy since the
1970s, the liberal view of citizenship has
been triumphant. The alternative view is
associated with the classical Greek polis,
with Rousseau, and with the cultural legacy
of the German Bildungsroman. This tradition
says that the education of the citizen in
the virtues is essential if that individual is
to achieve personal autonomy.