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Rights Peter Jones

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257 views9 pages

Rights Peter Jones

Uploaded by

kaustubhbhandari
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ISSUES IN POLITICAL THEORY

Political Theory has undergone a remarkable development in recent


years. From a state in which it was once declared dead, it has come
to occupy a central place in the study of Politics. Both political ideas
and the wide-ranging arguments to which they give rise are now
treated in a rigorous, analytical fashion, and political theorists have
contributed to disciplines as diverse as economics, sociology and
law. These developments have made the subject more challenging
and exciting, but they have also added to the difficulties of students
and others coming to the subject for the first time. Much of the
burgeoning literature in specialist books and journals is readily
intelligible only to those who are already well-versed in the subject.

Issues in Political Theory is a series conceived in response to this


situation. It consists of a number of detailed and comprehensive
studies of issues central to Political Theory which take account of
the latest developments in scholarly debate. While making original
contributions to the subject, books in the series are written
especially for those who are new to Political Theory. Each volume
aims to introduce its readers to the intricacies of a fundamental
political issue and to help them find their way through the detailed,
and often complicated, argument that that issue has attracted.

PETER JONES
ALBERT WEALE
ISSUES IN POLITICAL THEORY
Series Editors: PETER JONES and ALBERT WEALE

Published

David Beetham: The Legitimation of Power


Christopher J. Berry: Human Nature
Tom Campbell: Justice
Tim Gray: Freedom
John Horton: Political Obligation
Peter Jones: Rights
Susan Mendus: Toleration and the Limits of Liberalism

Forthcoming

Bhikhu Parekh: The Politics of Multiculturalism


Raymond Plant: Equality
Hillel Steiner: Utilitarianism
Albert Weale: Democracy

Series Standing Order


If you would like to receive future titles in this series as they are published,
you can make use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order
please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the
address below with your name and address and the name of the series.
Please state with which title you wish to begin your standing order.
(If you live outside the UK we may not have the rights for your area,
in which case we will forward your order to the publisher concerned.)

Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd,


Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 2XS, England
Rights

Peter Jones

M
MACMILLAN
© Peter Jones 1994
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
of this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London W1P 9HE.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this


publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.

First published 1994 by


THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world

ISBN 978-0-333-36136-8 ISBN 978-1-349-23671-8 (eBook)


DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23671-8

A catalogue record for this book is available


from the British Library.

Copy-edited and typeset by Povey-Edmondson


Okehampton and Rochdale, England
To Pat
Contents

Acknowledgements X

Introduction 2

2 Forms of Right 12
Claim-rights 14
Liberty-rights 17
Powers 22
Immunities 24

2 Benefits, Choices and Titles 26


Rights as benefits 26
Rights as choices 32
Rights as titles 36
Rights and sanctions 39

3 The Morality of Rights 45


Moral rights 45
Rights and utility 50
Rights-based theories 56
Rights and goal-based theories 58
Social goals and goal-based rights 65
Who or what has rights? 67

4 Natural Rights and Human Rights 72


Natural rights 72
Human rights 81
The content of human rights 82
Human rights and the rights of citizens 86
Scepticism about human rights 90
Human rights and ideal rights 92

5 Justifying Human Rights 94


Natural law and human rights 96

Vll
viii Contents

Self-evidence 96
Human rights and human worth 98
Rights and moral agency 99
Contract and rights 101
Self-ownership 107
Rights and goods III
Consequentialism and rights 115
Monist and pluralist justifications I 17

6 Freedom, Autonomy and Rights 120


The right to personal liberty 122
Autonomy 124
Kantian conceptions of autonomy 127
Autonomy and human well-being 129
Neutralism and perfectionism 132
Autonomy as an instrumental value 134
Rights to specific freedoms 135
How much freedom? 138
Rights and obstacles to freedom 142

7 Socioeconomic Rights 146


Needs and rights 148
Human needs and human rights 157
Human rights or citizens' rights? 165
Rights and distributive justice 169

8 Democracy, Groups and Rights 172


Democratic and non-democratic rights 173
Three other links 176
Is there a right to democracy? 177
Group rights 182
Popular sovereignty and democratic rights 187

9 Some Doubts and Difficulties 190


The status of rights 190
Conditional rights 194
Prima facie rights 195
Rights versus rights 198
Are there absolute rights? 202
A right to do wrong? 204
Contents IX

The limits of a morality of rights 207


Individualism, egoism and community 209
Human rights and cultural diversity 213

Conclusion 221

Notes 228

Guide to Further Reading 237

Bibliography 240

Index 252
Acknowledgements

I have acquired many debts in writing this book. I owe a great deal
to my colleague, Albert Weale, both for his very valuable and
helpful advice on the text of this book and for the encouragement
and intellectual stimulus he has given me over very many years.
Steven Kennedy has been immensely helpful as publisher of this
book. I am indebted to him for his advice and for the patience and
good humour with which he has tolerated my repeated delays in
completing this project.
My colleagues, Simon Caney and Tim Gray, spent many hours
carefully scrutinising an early draft of the text. They have saved me
from many errors and suggested a great many improvements and
the final product is very much better for their efforts. I am also
grateful for their support and encouragement to several other of my
colleagues at Newcastle, particularly to Hugh Herrington.
Some of the arguments in Chapter 7 were first developed in a
paper I wrote for an ECPR Workshop on Needs and Welfare
organised by Robert Goodin and Alan Ware; I am grateful to
them and to the other members of the Workshop for their helpful
comments on those arguments.
I claim the author's customary right to whatever errors and
misjudgements remain, particularly since I have sometimes resisted
the good advice that I have received.
Finally I must express my thanks to my wife, to whom this book
is dedicated, and to my children, Adam and Rachel. For a long time
they have seen me retreat to my study when I might have spent my
time with them. In spite of the neglect that they have suffered while I
have been writing this book, they have constantly given me their
support and have shown a tolerance of my academic preoccupations
to which I certainly had no right. I count myself very lucky. I know
they are as pleased as I am to see my word-processor at last give
birth to this book.

PETER JONES

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