rights again Re: [governance] Inputs ...

[Guru]

Milton,

the distinction you make between 'negative' and 'positive' rights based 
on the 'need for funding and authority for its enforcement' is logically 
flawed.

The right to FOE requires a strong state/police/army to protect 
it.Without a functional army/police, many of the negative rights have no 
meaning (would you like to live in Afghanistan or Sudan?). The largest 
parts of government budgets in most countries is for defence/interior 
ministries, which is a must for protecting 'negative' rights. All rights 
have a cost for their being available... and even those of the right to 
life and liberty are no exception.

btw, would like to know if you do accept the right to education :-)

Guru

Milton L Mueller wrote:
>   
>> -----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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