rights again Re: [governance] Inputs ...

[Milton L Mueller]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Avri Doria [mailto:avri at psg.com]
> i believe we have rights, i would call them fundamental rights, on
> account of our definition of what it  means to be human within a
> society and not because we have someone to hold accountable.  Holding
> someone accountable is secondary to the existence of a right not the
> prerequisite for one.  People had rights before the UDHR was adopted,
> they just were not spelled out in that form.

Ah, a natural rights person. I agree, but your claim can only be true of
negative "natural" rights, not of positive ones. You can't claim a right
to education, for example, without an authoritative and enforceable
claim to the tax moneys of your neighbors and to the labor of the
teachers. I don't think you can say that such a "right" exists without
an authority. 

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