Active Citizenship: A Challenge to the Political Orthodoxy

Abstract

Like in the previous century, there continues to be a confrontational relationship between most governments and their citizenries in the twenty-first century. Civil rights movements, political activism, and now social media have created frameworks and platforms to develop and improve the socio-political awareness of the citizenry to criticise, coordinate, and rebel against the government. Usually, the response of the government, despite the name, has been violence, including police brutality and victimisation of activists. In this paper, I attempt to use the social contract theory to offer a theoretical framework within which we can also understand this hostile relationship. In the social contract theory, government and civil society are conceptualised to assume superior moral and political authority over the citizenry. This traditional political arrangement, political orthodoxy, makes the citizens susceptible to victimisation and exploitation. It becomes evident that these political insurgencies and insurrections, like civil rights movements, are indicative of active citizenship, interrogating or challenging the political orthodoxy.