"The Good Citizen" As Viewed by

The concept citizenship is probably one of the most complex political concepts. In its narrow sense it usually refers to an individual's attitudes, evaluations, and behavior toward political objects. In other words, it expresses the individual's familiarity with the political system, his internalization of the basic values of the political culture, and his conception of himself in relationship to the system. In its broader sense, the concept includes relationships to objects that are not necessarily political in nature. Citizenship can refer to the whole of an individual's obligations to his fellow men and to the society in which he lives.' It includes, for example, his relationship to his family and place of work as well as to political figures. With respect to political figures, the individual relates not to role performance alone but also to such general characteristics as honesty, tolerance, and fairness. This study treats the concept of citizenship in its broader sense and has a twofold purpose: first, to propose a model based upon Guttman's facet theory for the conceptual analysis of the citizen role and second, to examine the concept of "the good citizen" as perceived by Israeli adolescents.2