This article analyses the evolution of the concept of citizenship in the work of Dominique Schnapper as one of the most prominent examples in contemporary sociology of a comprehensive approach to this question. Through an extensive overview of her work, the aim is to deepen the understanding of the tension between the dynamics of democracy and the idea of citizenship both as the ideal type of a social bond and as a regulatory principle for democratic societies. In her early books, she proposes a notion of citizenship linked to the political process of nation building which does not distinguish between the defi nition of a sociological ideal type and the construction of an ideal of society. This confusion is later revised by introducing into the analysis the impact of democracy over individual experiences of citizenship, which provides a very useful analytical perspective both for understanding the dynamics of contemporary democratic societies and for the necessary support of citizenship as a fundamental social bond and as a founding principle of political legitimacy.