Is Not Enough Enough?

I want to suggest that we understand the modern limits and strengths of human rights by acknowledging the fundamental tension within the movement around the role of the state. The human rights movement has incorporated an effort both to restrain the power of the state to oppress, imprison, and otherwise coerce opposition and to demand an ever-changing plate of social rights that enable individual freedoms. The first goal has required advocates to restrain the arbitrary powers of the nation-state, even bringing down oppressive states to ensure the safety of individuals. The second has depended on the active engagement of the state and the goodwill of citizens to ensure a reasonable distribution of resources to ensure human well-being. We might roughly analogize these to Isaiah Berlin’s negative and positive freedoms: the first limits the power of the state to coerce; the second offers individuals a path to the best that society...