Citizenship, Democracy, and Political Inclusion (2024 – 2027)
This NSF-funded*/** project examines why some states make national citizenship accessible and others do not, and whether democratic pressure pushes states towards inclusion. Citizenship laws are important to study because they simultaneously define who can participate in a national election and who belongs in the nation. Are democracies more restrictive in opening access to their political system, or are they impelled by liberalizing pressures towards inclusion? And while autocracies may not provide opportunities for individuals formally or meaningfully participate, maintaining a cohesive nation remains an important goal. To examine the political, social, and economic factors that determine citizenship policy, this project collects global data of laws for gaining and losing citizenship, across countries and over time.
Existing scholarship focuses largely on contemporary politics, ranging from the role of far-right political parties and social mobilization to court decisions, but there is a lack of theories that considers factors beyond democratic politics. This project theorizes that regime-level factors create meaningful contexts for understanding variation in citizenship policy settings. As a result, democracies and autocracies may both maintain similarly accessible (or restrictive) citizenship laws but be motivated by distinct reasons.
Working with colleagues at EUI’s Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT), this project will support the expansion of the Global Citizenship Law Dataset, which describes laws for gaining and losing citizenship, across 191 countries and between the years 1960 and 2024. With this novel dataset, we will be able to examine the relationship between citizenship policy and regime-type both cross-case and over time, making significant contributions to scholarly literature on citizenship and migration, public policymaking, welfare, immigration politics, and democratization.
*The NSF grant supporting this project was terminated on May 2, 2025, citing this work does not “align with updated Agency priorities.” Data collection will continue with generous bridge funding from UCI’s Provost’s Office.
**On June 23, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction in Case No. 25-cv-04737 which required reinstatement of this and other NSF awards. Notification was received June 30 and funds have been restored.