European integration and citizens' rights: A comparative perspective

The prospects for European Union citizenship are sometimes discounted by reference to homogeneity in the United States compared to diversity in the European Union. This article suggests that there may be more similarities between the two systems than is sometimes supposed by many observers. Even though there are important differences, both systems have had to address similar questions about how to combine the benefits of integration and the protection of rights. In discussing the common and divergent features, the author argues that comparison also reveals the possibility that it is diversity, not homogeneity, that is necessary to the protection of citizenship's rights.