1. Key Concepts in Political
Theory: Rights
Department of Political Science
Course: B.Com (Prog) IV Semester (in lieu of M.I.L)
Paper: Introduction to Political Theory (M.I.L)
Teacher: Gadde Surya
2. • Right is to get what is owed, or due, as a human, or a citizen, or a
member of a group.
• It is an entitlement, or a claim, to something, either to do or to have it
done.
• With right, one has a choice to either exercise or not to exercise a
right.
• When one has a right, others have an obligation to let the individual
exercise their right, if and when they choose to.
• Rights are of different nature. Legal, moral, social, political, human,
etc.
• Justification of rights can be done on legal, moral, ethical or
humanitarian grounds.
3. • Justification of a right can be done on the basis of one being a member
of a social group.
• Exercise of a right in the form of a claim on something must be a
necessity for that individual to be a decent member of that social
group.
• Such a right is justified only if that individual is able to and willing to
respect the rights of other members of the group.
4. • Negative Rights
• These rights imply non-interference from the society, and/or State. Any right to
liberty, in the negative sense of the term, can be included under this category.
• Negative rights prevent outside interference in an individuals actions and
thoughts but do not have any kind of obligation to positively do something in
assisting the individual in pursuing their claim or way of life.
• Ex: Right to life, right to property, right to religion, right to freedom of
expression, etc.
5. • Positive Rights
• These rights imply a positive obligation on the society and state to do
something for the individual to enjoy the right.
• These rights impose a positive duty, unlike negative rights, on others to respect
and perform certain actions so that the individual may live a decent life.
• Ex: Right to free education, right against exploitation, etc.
6. • Civil Rights
• The term is usually linked to African-American’s struggle for equality and
equal citizenship in a liberal democratic status during 1950s and 1960s.
• Civil rights are those rights of an individual on the basis of being a member of
a civil society.
• Ex: right to free movement, equality, to own property, to assemble, etc.
• Political Rights
• These are those rights which are based on an individual’s membership to a
political organisation, highest form is State, and particularly in the issues
concerning formal politics.
7. • Ex: Right to vote, contest in elections, right to hold government accountable,
right to political dissent, etc.
• The distinction between civil and political rights is conceptually very
volatile and often could be overlapping.
• Legal Rights
• These rights are justified by an established legal system of that territorial
space.
• These rights are also subjected to provisions in the law.
• Legal authorities used the term right to refer to four different properties.
1. The correlate of a legal duty (claim)
2. The absence of duty (privilege or liberty)
3. The capacity to change legal relations (power)
4. The protection against change in one’s legal position (immunity)
8. • Theory of Natural Rights
• Most influential on natural rights was given by John Locke.
• Thomas Hobbes, before Locke, propounded a theory of natural rights.
According to Hobbes, natural rights can be traced to state of nature, a state
which does not have an organized political authority and government, which is
a state of war.
• To Hobbes, right to life is a natural life which is inalienable even in an
organized political community.
• Locke also traces natural rights to state of nature, but unlike Hobbes, this state
is not a state of war and men live together according to reason and without any
common superior.
9. • According to Locke, every man has inalienable rights to life, liberty and
property, provided that he does not interfere with any other man’s enjoyment
of same conditions.
• Utilitarian Theory of Rights
• It was outlined by Jeremy Bentham according to traditional legislations based
on the concept of rights is unscientific and is highly critical of such process.
• He proposes that any legislation should be based on the principle of utility.
Utility is that property of an object which either produces benefits or
advantages or prevents happening of harm, pain, evil, unhappiness whose
interest is considered.
1. Individuals can evaluate their own happiness.
2. Evaluation can also be made by the policy makers of the state.
3. Evaluation is quantitative. It means that happiness can be measured and represented by
a number.
10. • He says that state should work on the principle of utility which implies that
state should work for the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people.
• Human Rights
• These are international moral and legal rights which aim to protect all the
people around the world from political, legal and social abuses.
• Ex: Right to religion, right to a fair trial when charged with a war crime, right
not to be tortured, right to engage in political activity.
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) sets out two dozen rights
which can be grouped into 6.
• Security rights, liberty rights, political rights, equality rights, welfare rights and due
process rights.
• Individuals are entitled to these rights on the fact of being human beings.
• Criticism of these rights is that they are liberal and western in nature and do
not recognize community and cultural norms of non-western countries.
11. • First generation:
• These deal with liberty and participation in political life.
• These rights are usually civil and political rights. They are negative in nature.
• Ex: Right to life, equality before law, right to fair trial, religion and voting
rights.
• Second generation:
• These are the rights which deal with equality and are recognized by
governments post second world war.
• These are social, economic and cultural in nature.
• Ex: Right to be employed in just and favourable condition, right to food,
housing, health care, education, etc.
• Both the generations of rights are covered by UDHR.
12. • Third generation:
• These rights go beyond mere civil and social rights.
• Rights like environment, group rights, right to self-determination, economic
and social development, right to natural resources, communication rights,
intergenerational equity and sustainability.
• Feminist Challenge:
• Feminists argue that justice should be understood from a group perspective.
• They criticize the notion of universal individual rights stating that such notions
are biased and are based on male domination.
• Iris Marion Young states that there are certain privileged and oppressed groups
in the society and universal citizenship would reproduce the same domination.
• She proposes a group differentiated citizenship and a heterogeneous public.
