Individual rights are principles held by one person, enforced by law or acquired through self-determination. They can be negative or positive, associated with individualism, and used to promote freedom or central power. Society determines rights through philosophy and legal means, and they have been central to many historical conflicts and social changes.
Individual rights are those principles which are held by a single person rather than by an entire group. Individuals’ rights can be enforced by law, provided by social means, or acquired through self-determination. These rights are generally associated with the concept of nature: in essence, every person is born with rights that cannot be dispossessed by the group.
According to political scientists, individual rights can be negative or positive. This means that a negative right allows a person not to act on a certain principle, while a positive right means that a person can act in a certain capacity if she wishes. This can be enforced by the laws of a society or just exist naturally. For example, a negative right is one that prevents a person from stealing from another individual. Meanwhile, a positive right is the right to speak freely.
These rights are strongly associated with the concept of individualism. In the United States, they are often seen as a viable way to promote freedom and prevent abuse by the government or the majority. This is very similar in most European countries; however, much of the discourse on individual rights is biased towards negative rights. In China, such rights are used as a way to prevent societal upheaval and promote a stronger central power. This is achieved by combining negative rights with positive rights, essentially defining a parameter of what the individual can and cannot do.
To determine what rights exist, society uses a combination of self-determination and political philosophy through legal means. Most of the world’s nations enforce positive and negative laws in a codified form of law, such as a constitution for the nation or state. Some philosophies state that the only reason government exists is to identify and codify these respective rights so that they are upheld by society.
Throughout history, singular rights have been the underlying principle of many revolutions and rebellions. Both the American and the French Revolutions made the rights of the individual a central theme of the reason for conflicts and social changes. Conversely, the collective rights of each individual together were essential in the Bolshevik revolution that brought the Communist Party to power in the Soviet Union. These individual rights have been defined for the benefit of the entire population.
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