The citizen formation between theory and reality

Abstract

The present article arises from the need to address the issue of the difficulties in citizen training particularly in countries like Mexico, in general in Latin America, which have been European colonies with multiethnic and multicultural populations, to which European models of being and doing have been imposed. The historical references to the concept of citizenship date back to antiquity, but when more conceptual and practical confusion appears, it is in relation to electoral processes. The last National Survey on Political Culture, conducted in 2012, and the reports of the Latinobarometro are the data for the analysis of the situation of a citizenship that does not accept the passive role in the electoral political participation. Achieving democracy through political participation represents an opportunity but also a problem that is reflected in social decomposition and violence. This reality inevitably leads to the question of whether the means and institutions exist to form citizens. To this end, the model proposed by T. H. Marshall, with some changes, continues to be an implicit foundation of the concept, political discourse, and citizen practice. The main objective is to correlate T.H. Marshall's concept of citizenship with the reality of the Mexican citizen in the 21st century.