1. I AM A DEMOCRATIC
PERSON
Citizenship
Y2 ESO
Almudena Corrales Marbán
Social Studies Department

2. CITIZENS AND RESIDENTS
The residents of a state are people
who live in the state.
•
•
All residents have to obey the laws
of the country.
Residents can de divided into
citizens and non-citizens.
The citizens of the state are people
who have special rights and
responsabilities in the state:
•
They have a right to live in the sate,
if they want to. However, they can
also choose to live in a different
state.
•
They can have the right to vote.
•
They can have a passport if the
want one.
•
If there is a war, they have a
responsability to protect their state.

3. Non-citizens are residents who
originally come from another
state.
• Non citizens cannot vote.
• They do not have a duty to
fight for the country in a war.
Often the majority of the citizens
share the same language,
beliefs and religion. However, in
multicultural societies people
from many different cultures are
all citizens of the same state.

4. TERRITORY
The territory of a state is the area inside
its borders.
•
There are two main types of borders:
land borders and maritime borders.
•
A state’s land territory is
controlled by its government and
people have to obey the state’s laws
within this territory.
•
In the area of sea that a state
controls, it has the right to fish and
to extract monerals ans fossil fuels.
•
States also have certain rights
relating to the air space above
them.
•
Embassy building in other
countries are also part of the state’s
territory

5. Who decides where the borders
go?
The borders of states change quite often.
Sometimes new states are created, and old
states dissapear. This is usually because of
wars, but sometimes rulers buy and sell
territory.
What are the patterns followed?
•
Geographical: natural borders folllow
geographical features like mountain
ranges, rivers or the sea. These borders
are easy to defend, so it is difficult for the
states to conquer territory on the other side
of the border.
•
Cultural: borders often separate people
who speak different languages or who have
different customs, beliefs and religions.
•
Artificial: borders that have been created
for artificial reasons often go in straight
lines. They are the result of an agreement
between countries, for example after a war,
or after a new territory is discovered. This

6. STATE INSTITUTIONS
The state institutions are responsible for the administration of a
state. They include a government and a bureaucracy. The most
important functions of these institutions are to provide security,
to control the state’s borders and to establish laws.

7. But, do all the countries have a
welfare system?
• Richer countries normally provide more
services to their citizens than poorer
countries.
TERMINOLOGY
• States with higher taxes provide more
services than states with lower taxes.
Welfare state/system:
Estado del bienestar.
Bureaucracy: burocracia.
• The countries that provide most
services to their citizens are called
welfare states, because the state takes
responsability for the basic welfare of
the citizens. Welfare states are normally
rich states with quite high taxes.
Civil servants:
funcionarios (del
Estado/comunidad
autónoma).

8. NOT ALL THE STATES
ARE THE SAME!!!
You now know some of the basic
characteristics of states, but there are
actually many different types of state. We
will look at what they are, and at different
ways of classifying states!

9. DEMOCRACIES
The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos and
kratos . Demos means people and kratos means power, so a
democracy is a state where the people have the power. In Ancient
Greece, all citizens went to the main square to discuss important
questions. However, most modern states have millions of citizens, so
that isn’t possible these days.
Modern democracies are instead based on three main principles:
• citizen participation
• the separation of powers
• the rule of law.

10. a) Citizens particpation:
In a democracy, the elections must be free
and fair.
will do if they are elected, and the media
must be free also to report their ideas.
•
Adult citizens must be allowed to vote (at the •
age of 18 onwards), whatever their sex,
religion, race or social position.
There must be regular elections, so citizens
can ghange their representatives. They are
normally held every 4-5 years.
•
All adult citizens must be allowed to be
candidates.
•
The results must be fair.: all votes must be
counted, and the rules must be the same for
all of the candidates and political parties.
•
All candidates must be free to say what they

11. What is a referendum?
Sometimes sates hold a referendum
when they want to make a very
important decision.
In a referendum, all citizens vote for or
against a single question. For example
most states that want to join the
European Union first hold a
referendum.

12. b) Separation of powers
The three most important powers of the state are its power to
create new laws, to implement laws and to judge people who are
accused of breaking the law. Each of these powers belongs to
one branch of the state:

13. c) The rule of law
Democracies are
based on the rule of
law. This means that:
• Everyone must
obey the law,
including powerful
people.
• If a person or
organisation is
accused of breaking
the law, they must
be given a fair trial.
Translate this
paragraph into
Spanish.
Come on!! I am
sure you will do
it very well 

14. DICTATORSHIPS AND
OLIGARCHIES
In dictatorships and oligarchies,
individuals or small groups of people
control all the state institutions. This
people often obtain power using violence,
for example a coup.
In dictatorships and oligarquies:
•
There is no real citizen participation
at all.
•
There is no separation of powers: the
same people control the three
branches.
•
There is no rule of law: the rulers can
break the law without being punished,
and they can punish normal citizens
without giving them a fair trial.

15. Some dictatorships and oligarchies
have some of the institutions of a
democracy. For example, they hold
elections and they have a parliament.
However they are not true
democracies:
WHY?
• The elections are not free and fair.
Sometimes not everyone can vote,
and sometimes the results are
maniulated
• The parliament is controlled by the
rulers, and cannot make its own
decisions.
States that pretend to be a democracy,
but that are really dictatorships or
ologarchies, are often called falso
democracies. Most states in the world
are either dictatoships, oligarchies or
TERMINOLOGY
Dictatorship (or autocracy):
Dictadura: a state ruled by an
individual.
Oligarchy: Oligarquía: a
state ruled by a small group of
people.
Coup (or coup d’etat): Golpe
de Estado : when a group of
people suddenly take control
of a state. If the militaries take
control of the State it is called
military coup