Ciudadanía y civilidad: acerca del derecho a tener derechos.

Abstract

In a context of neoliberalism and sharpening of socioeconomic inequality in the Latin-American societies, the author analyzes the concept of citizenship and its articulation with that of civility. The first one has been defined as a status that guarantees equal individuals rights and duties, liberties and restrictions, powers and responsibilities. That’s why the concept of citizenship occupies a central place in democratic politics. But the exclusion, the growing inequalities and the lack of conditions for the rights’ exercise, shows its insufficiency and reveals a gap to fill. The need of linking this concept with the expectations of recognition contained in the idea of civility, leads the author to asking for the paradoxes of the liberal democracy, and to questioning the existing gap between the ideal right and its actual exercise, which indicates the importance of the task to be done for obtaining real democracy.

Keywords

• Latin America
• neoliberalism
• inequality
• democracy
• citizenship
• civility.