Rights and other institutions

1. Rights and other institutions 25 November 2013

2. Rights • What is a right? • entitlements (not) to perform certain actions, or (not) to be in certain states; or entitlements that others (not) perform certain actions or (not) be in certain states • Distinguish rights from democracy • Democracy as way of making collective decisions • Rights as a limitation on democracy • Consider Rawlsian political theory • Start with veil of ignorance • 1st principle: guarantee fundamental right

3. First generation rights • Negative rights: non-interference of state in private sphere • Speech, religion, association, privacy • Also political: right to vote • Viewed as most basic and essential • Even these can be limited • Prisoners can’t vote, can’t propagate hatred/racism

4. Second generation rights • Positive right: entitlement to provision of some good or service • Social and economic welfare: health, housing, minimal income • Right to benevolent actions from others • For • Necessary for first generation rights to be meaningful • Needed for legitimacy

5. Problems and solutions • Hard to enforce => devalue other rights • Justiciable: can courts decide these cases • Too expensive for developing states • Poor incentives • Solutions • Ask whether state takes reasonable actions • Ask whether a system is in place

6. Third generation rights • Do rights apply only to individuals? • Life gains meaning through groups • Rights to collective goods: survival of language, self-determination, environment

7. Some cultural/group rights • Exemptions from laws: eg, drug use by native Americans • Assistance to do things that majority does easily: