All people are said to have natural rights that are held to be universal but how universal are these rights and when did they become rights. In my opinion i feel that T.H. Marshall did the best in explaining this expansion of rights. T.H. Marshall claims that the 18th century gave us the idea of “civil” rights – claims to freedom of speech, property, religion, etc; the 19th-century, building on the era of revolutions, turned to “political” rights – claims to participation in democratic self-government; and the 20th-century, lastly, developed the idea of “social” rights.
The idea of rights has always been around but in the 18th century the need to identify and explain those rights began. Great minds throughout France, England and the English colonies began exploring the idea of human/natural rights. It was in the 18th century that both America and France drafted and signed their own doctrines about human rights, France in 1793 with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and America in 1789 with the Bill of Rights. People began to understand that they would have to identify and then defend their rights.
In the 19th century after both France and America had revolted for their rights and freedoms the thought of rights made its way into politics. The 19th century brought along a new idea of political rights. Politics began to play an important role in people’s natural rights. The idea that a government cannot interfere with these rights and must protect the rights was something very new. This was also the time when slavery began to be abolished.
In the 20th century social and civil rights became very important. The idea that all men (and women, and blacks) are created equal was truly put into effect. All people no matter race and sex began to acquire the rights that were always theirs.
The idea of rights is something very interesting. Who’s to say who gets what rights and what rights are naturally ours or not? The fact is that rights are simply agreed upon ideas that are distributed to the people accordingly. Society has developed rights as the common man has taken over society. With the average person having more say it’s no wonder that they fight for rights to keep them in the position they are in now.
I believe that the only right we are born with per se is the right to choose how to behave. You have the right to control your body, and react to your surroundings as you see fit. That does not mean, however, that your actions do not come with consequences. You have the right to choose to drink heavily and then choose to operate an automobile. But your choices come with the consequences resulting from breaking the law. The society or culture we live within presents us with the legalities of rights in our surrounding. But the only rights we are actually born with, are those of control and interpretation of our own body.
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