Who is the “good citizen”?

Abstract

The figure of the so-called “good citizen” constitutes a type of ideological discursive strategy and expresses a social pathology of Brazilian citizenship. The aim of this essay is to subject this figure to a critical analysis of its discursive, historical, moral and political assumptions. For this, we resort to the model of immanent critique of ideology proposed by Rahel Jaeggi. We identified contradictions and problems arising from the rhetorical use of the figure of “good citizen” related to: the punitive and firearms appeal to civilians; the ideological representations of gender, race and class; the social function of the media; and political neoconservatism. The fundamental contradiction of the “good citizen” is not in relation to the figure of “bandit” or “bum,” but to the very ideal of universalization of citizenship. As an expression of ideology, the “good citizen” proved to be a real anti-citizen and, therefore, a risk for democracy.