The Right to Have Rights

Democratic, Not Political

Bibliographic Data

ID6352096
AuthorsSofia Näsström (0000-0002-3816-2035, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume42
Issue5
Pages543-568
Publication date2014-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0090591714538427
OpenAlexW2166955704
LanguageEN
Citations received9

Recent years have witnessed an upsurge of political readings of the right to have rights. The gist of the argument is that this right only comes into being in the act of claiming or taking it. At the same time, the political reading suffers from a normative lacuna which is difficult to ignore if right is not to collapse into might. The present article seeks to show that this normative lacuna can be accounted for if one situates the political reading in relation to a certain form of government. Acknowledging Montesquieu’s influence on Arendt’s resort to the principles which guide political action, the article offers a new interpretation of the normative basis of the right to have rights. It argues, first, that this right is democratic, not political, and second, that the principle which sets the right in motion is responsibility, not freedom

Action (physics · Argument (complex analysis · Democracy · Human rights · Interpretation (philosophy · Law and economics · Normative · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Sociology · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Political Theology and Sovereignty

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