Dear Eduardo, 

A good citizen is some who is helpful , willing to put others first, respect them.; is a  good listener, one that think about what is important to others; loves knowledge as a way of a better understand of the world and is a loving person, who does not like to to harm anyone.

Thank you for your interesting question

Helena

 Dear Eduardo, 

A good citizen is some who is helpful , willing to put others first, respect them.; is a  good listener, one that think about what is important to others; loves knowledge as a way of a better understand of the world and is a loving person, who does not like to to harm anyone.

Thank you for your interesting question

Helena

Dear Jose

I am agree with you. Good Citizen is also a GOOD HUMAN BEING. What you said about the character of a good person/citizen should always same in the past, present and future. They are responsible for the fate of the whole society, but not themselves.

Dear Jose,

I am afraid, the good citizenship that was the holy grail of societies is eroded to non existence today. The things dears Helena and Niranjan mentioned are becoming rare in most cases and are almost finding a needle in a hey.  We are watching and seeing every day, every where. 

This question will be answered slightly differently based on the society each one of us lives in.  But the general principles are about the same.  I would say that a good citizen is law abiding, supports the country, pays all the dues and taxes.  GOOD CITIZENS ALSO HAVE TO SPEAK OUT WHEN THERE IS LACK OF JUSTICE OF THE COUNTRY, AND WHEN THERE ARE ERRORS AND FAULTS IN THE GOVT.  THEY WANT TO SEE PROGRESS IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY.

Nowadays, in a globalized age, each of us considers ourselves NOT JUST THE CITIZENS OF A CERTAIN COUNTRY BUT OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE.  Perhaps this contributes to the difference in the meaning of good citizenship.

 Dear José Eduardo,

Citizen is a word which refers to city. Then, good citizen it is a person that maintain good behavior in the middle urban: look at the semaphore, abide by traffic rules, not disturb others, be good with animals, not throw garbage in the street, etc. But that attitude is appropriate for a gear or mechanism, not for human beings.

I believe that a good citizen must be like Socrates: critical, acute, brilliant, single, incisor, someone that renew each day the urban life, but not a lubricated piece of the great and sophisticated urban mechanism.

And don´t forget, for the people of its time, Socrates not was a good citizen: Drank hemlock.

Thank you

Good citizen is good community member who respects the other citizens and their rights, who is involved in community problems and who contributes, according to knowledge and skills, for the sake of community at both, local and the state level. To be a good citizen assumes that you have to be well informed about community problems. Good citizen make good critics and propose possible solutions.

As @Miranda has mentioned, it is important the highest level, global citizenship! Good citizen always take care about its country and general interests.

A good citizen is a good person who is loyal to the nation and serves his society in a desirable way.

Good scientists doubt old laws of Nature to find deeper understanding. Similarly, good citizens should be critical of traditions.

A good citizen understand "Being human and love human beings" because whatever he does, is going to impact the world.

Dear José,

I am afraid determinations or approaches of a good citizen have been always culture/country dependent and they are even now.

What you have showed may be the interpretation of your own country or the social/cultural environment you live.

Yes, the lack of confidence towards political systems, policy makers have become general in democratic countries. This is due that the news and information on events, phenomena, causes arrive sooner the citizens than the politically fabricated lies. The cause is that there are free press/media in many countries and the policy makers are not able to deform each data as quickly as well as the thinking and educational standard of people is much higher than earlier. 

Think generally a good citizen should do good & contribute to the welfare of the society that s/he is living in and do no harm to the society.

But this topic prompted me to ask the following questions:

1) Should a good citizen to be politically neutral i.e. not supporting either ruling party or opposition party or the good citizen should take side?

2) if a government is not doing the right things in the eyes of a good citizen, should the good citizen still support the government & contribute to the welfare of the society?

Dear Han,

Unfortunately, without knowing the conditions the political neutrality is difficult to be evaluated. In case when either ruling party or the opposition are good for nothing the neutrality may be a resistance, a kind of protest against the politics. There are cases e.g. in soft dictatorships when the votes are faked and the system of voting as well as the operation of the pseudo-democracy is wholly altered.

Dear Han,

Regarding your second question, the answer should be not. If a government does bad things it does not serve the welfare of the society. Does not it?

By the way, many citizens are not able to differentiate and evaluate the performance of some governments. In the possession of the media a populist but autocratic government can do what it want to.

Dear Helena,

Dear All,

Does the good citizen you showed exist? I do not think. I am afraid you have written what Jesus asked us to love our neighbours as ourselves. However, most of us – pure Pharisees – do not want to behave like that.

The mainstream rule is: first me, second me, third me and if there remained some leftover it is wasted.

If only your phrase were followed.

A good citizen is a citizen who knows his rights and demanding them if not give to him. And he knows his duties and accomplish them without supervised, abide the laws and advice other people to abide them.

Dear George,

Many traditions are good, but I don't think that all traditions are always good. Here are examples of bad traditions, though these are now historical ones: http://listverse.com/2007/08/12/top-10-bizarre-traditions/

The presence of such traditions in history indicates that we may still have some bad traditions in the present society without noticing it. People who notice such traditions being bad and make efforts to improve the relevant life and custom should be good citizens.

Best regards, Tatsuo

Dear All,

Here you are ideals on characterisation of citizens in the 19th century in Hungary as István Széchenyi (statesman in that time) imagined:

“Each nation has got such a government what it deserves. If because of some reasons, stupid and vile people rule a wise and honest folk, then the folk will send these abominable guys to the hell the most quickly. However, if a wretched government remains and survives for a long time, it is sure that the mistake is in the nation. In this case the nation is mean or uneducated.”

Dear All,

I see in photos the good citizens of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. Could anybody specify why these people are escaping from their motherlands? What have done neighbouring countries to help refugees in this human catastrophe? Who are responsible and who should pay the price for this tragedy?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34113471

https://www.rt.com/news/313972-hungary-train-station-migrants/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/11836027/Budapest-station-orders-evacuation-due-to-migrants-after-Vienna-sees-biggest-daily-influx-by-rail.html

@ András Bozsik:-Terrorism is biggest problem in  most of these countries. But why terrorism is there and who provides shelter for these things?, are few queries to be answered and should be understood deeply by themselves for future generation. may be they are interpreting holy books wrongly in there own way, may be few of them are taking shelter of religion for spreading terrorism. whosoever is doing these things, Always price has to be paid by innocent people only.

Its my personal opinion " Don't follow any religion unless or until you have understood humanity very well" .we can understand any religion well once we have understood humanity and responsibilities  of human beings for each other.

Dear Colleagues:

I’m really enjoying this debate.

I think the discussion has set out a first axis between the normative ideal of the ‘good citizenship’ and the political reality of today's society. Some of you think the real citizen is nowadays far away from that ideal, apparently due to the dominance of individualism.

A second axis refers to the content of that ideal. I see several interesting positions:

1) At least some qualities of 'good citizens' are universal (helpful, respectful of other citizens, good human being, etc.) OR the qualities depend on the specific society to which the citizens belong (the latter was largely the position of Aristotle).

2) Now there are global citizens, who are simultaneously citizens of a given country. I would say this implies that the ‘good citizen’ has universal and country-specific qualities simultaneously.

3) ‘Good citizens’ are law-abiding and follow the traditions of society AND / OR they are able to have critical views and behaviors (when they see injustice or bad governments, for example) and get away from bad traditions.

4) ‘Good citizens’ know their duties, but also their rights, and demand these rights if they are not given to them (by Prof. Qasim Mohammed Hussein).

Dear Anil,

Terrorism is only a horrible consequence. The real disaster is what did indicate terrorism.

Tank you Jose and all

I have learned lots of new ways of thinking about what is a good citizen....very impressive.

Helena

 Dr. José Eduardo Jorge,very good Conclusions. Thank you for this discussion!

My approach to defining a "good citizen" proceeds on "think big" platform. This approach revolves about a "world citizen first" without neglecting my loyalty to my country. A good citizen is a constructive person who is aware of the duties towards humanity & those around in the place of residence. Such citizen will give benefits to others & will not cause harm to them " which indicates true peacefulness". This citizen will be ethical towards others & will know that building personal knowledge or strength aims at empowering all humans eventually. A good citizen will keep on thinking of ways to stop wars & to reduce the effects of disaster (natural or man-made) on global-scale.

The good citizen, I defined, may be rare but it is our job (as teacher) to work on our students in order to have plenty of  noble persons as such.

A good citizen involves in there community , respects other people's property and knows what's happening in there community. A good citizen makes better society and good live.

Good citizen nowadays must sympathize and help the immigrants regardless the policy of his Government!

Dear Colleagues:

The current refugee crisis in Europe is giving us some examples that are relevant to our discussion (see links). I think these examples tell the difference between 'good citizen' and 'bad citizen' is not something of the past: it remains important today.

We have, on the one hand, thousands of people in Iceland offering –through Facebook- receive refugees in their homes, and thousands of Germans who made donations for the refugees arriving in Munich. On the other hand , there are thousands who express xenophobic feelings.

I would say the former have at least some qualities of a 'good citizen’. These attributes are, say, 'solidarity', 'respect for others' and the like. They act in this situation as ‘global citizens’, but those qualities are also relevant to social life and political life in their own country.

I wouldn’t think of those attributes as purely individual traits. They are values, beliefs and social norms, which are spread in varying degrees among the members of society. Among other things, these examples of solidarity, in contrast to the xenophobic reactions, connect us to the value of cultural diversity, which we are discussing in other threads (see the last two links) .

From all this I would draw two additional conclusions, which I'd like to propose as hypothesis for discussion:

a) Probably the 'good citizen' described 50 years ago no longer exist, but because the nature of 'good citizenship' is changing.. For example, the 'good citizens' of textbooks were very attached to their own community and their own culture. The 'good citizens' in the global era are perhaps more critical of their own culture, but also more open to other ideas, values and communities.

b) In a given society (where there are usually culturally diverse groups) there is a core of values that may be very important for coexistence and the nature of citizenship.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/world/europe/iceland-residents-join-on-facebook-to-offer-help-to-refugees.html?_r=0

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/03/germany-refugees-munich-central-station

http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/163816/eus-tusk-condemns-racism-xenophobia-against-refugees

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_multiculturalism_for_you?_tpcectx=qa_overview_following&_trid=55e8bfe85dbbbda3d38b45b6_

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_values_and_customs_of_the_people_of_your_country_you_appreciate_because_they_are_beneficial_for_society_What_would_you_change?_tpcectx=qa_overview_following&_trid=55e8c013614325cef38b456d_

Dear José: Thanks for sharing this question with me. In my opinion, a good citizen is someone that is able to think in the common good and common benefit and not merely in its own egoistic interests and petty ambitions or egoistic interests of his/her groups, associations or political parties. The following RG discussion has several answers with some relation to this line of thought:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_should_be_the_role_of_the_scientific_community_and_researchers_in_the_combat_to_the_social_inequities_and_different_sort_of_discriminations

A good citizen is normally the type of person who works hard, helps others and respects the law.

 ".......... most people are very good citizens".

A good citizen is normally the type of person who works hard, helps others and respects the law.

"......... most people are very good citizens".

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Ten Ways to be a Good Citizen:

1- follow rules and laws,

2- volunteer to be active in your community.

3- be honest and trustworthy.

4- respect the rights of others.

5- be informed about the world around you.

6- respect the property of others.

7- be compassionate.

8- take responsibility for your actions.

9- be a good neighbor.

10- protect the environment.

A good citizen is one who follows law of his home country as well as a country which he visits. Laws differs from country to country. If he /she follow the law of his own country (say trafic rules) in other conutry then he may lend in jail !   Well , a prisoner is not a good citizen.

I endorse all that has been offered for good citizenship: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." JFK.

Best regards,

Debra

Dear Debra Sharon Ferdinand

There is a famous song in Egypt, Don`t ask what was Egypt given for you, but what you  but Say what shall we give Egypt

متقولش ايه ادتنا مصر قول هندى ايه لمصر

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CApldAq3aRo

Good citizen has high national character.

Education is sometimes viewed as a prerequisite to good citizenship!

Good citizenship takes commitment!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_citizenship

http://www.fresnobee.com/living/article34140597.html

'Every citizen must have the conviction to be able to do everything that is not contrary to the laws without fear another drawback beyond that which can result from the action of it.'

Cesare Beccaria

Every good citizen adds to the strength of a nation.

-- Gordon B. Hinckley

Citizen ....

Khalil Gibran (Author, Journalist, Illustrator, Poet (1883–1931)) once said:

"Without free, self-respecting, and autonomous citizens there can be no free and independent nations. Without internal peace, that is, peace among citizens and between the citizens and the state, there can be no guarantee of external peace." -Vaclav Havel

'Only with the legitimate freedom of expression, plurality of information concerning citizenship and permanent vigilance against attempts to curtail the democratic rule of law, can we think of turning force regimes in Law Regimes.'

(Paulo Miranda)

Dear all,

Good day,

Beautiful quotes dear @ Andréa @Ljubomir @ Hazim and @ Subhash.

Best regards,

I had a simple goal in life: to be true to my parents and our country as an honorable son, a caring brother, and a good citizen.

--- Benigno Aquino III

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight."

                                                  -----   Theodore Roosevelt

"No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline."

-- Kofi Annan

To be a good citizen, it's important to be able to put yourself in other people's shoes and see the big picture. If everything you see is rooted in your own identity, that becomes difficult or impossible.

Eli Pariser

If national education and HRD system is effective, we can develop good citizens.

"... the truth is, being a good citizen and being a good person are one in the same...

The truth is, being a good person can be really really hard. Think about yourselves. When is the last time you were rude to a classmate, a teacher, a parent? When is the last time you judged a peer, thinking they weren’t as good as you? It’s not that we’re all bad people. But our natural tendency is to think about ourselves. The harder act to learn is to truly be empathetic. Radically empathetic. And to treat others like we would want to be treated ourselves. All the time..."

http://www.generationcitizen.org/being-a-good-citizen-and-a-good-person/

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

"Every good citizen makes his country's honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it."

                                                        -----   Andrew Jackson

Hi,

According to my readings, it depends on whose perspective you accept; if you consider this question in terms of political angles, your objective for being a good citizen shapes in regard to political views or if you think this question in terms of social studies, again, your purpose is navigated by social science's views. Citizenship education tries to find an answer to this question, but it is a vast field that includes a wide range of philosophical, political and ideological perspectives, and of pedagogical approaches, goals and practices.