[governance] Civil & Political Entitlements, and a Declaration

[Milton L Mueller]

I agree with this part of your statement. I do not think that a religious grounding for rights is required, however. We should not get into that here, it's outside the scope of this list. 

> Obviously, the only time anyone really needs a right is to do
> something somebody else doesn't want them to do -- or even that a
> majority doesn't want them to do, like speak to an unpopular issue.

> [snip] 
> If you follow what I'm saying above, and wish to resist tyranny of the
> majority as well as governmental tyranny and the tyranny of any other
> large concentration of power, then there must be a conception of
> rights that is beyond the ability of the majority, the government or
> any other power to legitimately alter or control.   Thus, such rights,
> while they can be violated, even violated for a very long time and
> egregiously so, NEVER go away or get waived.  They just get violated.


Milton Mueller
Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
XS4All Professor, Delft University of Technology
------------------------------
Internet Governance Project:
http://internetgovernance.org
 
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