Chapter 14 CIVIL RIGHTS Where Liberty and Equality
Chapter 14 CIVIL RIGHTS: Where Liberty and Equality Collide Theoretical Focus © 2011 Taylor & Francis
Civil Rights versus Civil Liberties • Civil Rights: Promise that government power will be used to ensure that individuals are treated equally and fairly by government and other individuals. • Civil Liberties: Restrict and control government power over individuals. © 2011 Taylor & Francis
Civil rights vs. Civil liberties • Historically, until the Civil War, the two concepts were synonymous with one another. • After the ratification of the Civil War Amendments (13 th, 14 th, and 15 th) to the Constitution, the two became paradoxical. © 2011 Taylor & Francis
Civil Rights vs. Civil Liberties • Civil liberties called for restrictions on governmental intervention to ensure political liberty through individual freedoms (limited government). • Civil Rights called for governmental intervention to redress social order inequalities which limited group freedoms (big government). © 2011 Taylor & Francis
Civil Rights vs. Civil Liberties • Civil Liberties promote Individual liberty at the expense of Governmental Order like in the Rights of the Accused (e. g. , 4 th to 8 th Amendments); or through the promotion of fundamental freedoms like in the 1 st Amendment (i. e. , speech, religion, assembly, and press). • Civil Rights promote a Free Order at the expense of individual and collective liberties that are seen to restrict freedom when they are exercised (e. g. , 14 th and 15 th Amendments). © 2011 Taylor & Francis
Conclusion • With both civil rights and liberties there is a dilemma of scope and depth regarding their application in society. • When do we know that we have gone too far or not far enough in the promotion of either. © 2011 Taylor & Francis
Conclusion • Excessive civil liberty application leads to socio-political or economic anarchy as individual rights overtake collective duties leading to excessive individualism. • Likewise, uncontrolled application of civil rights leads to a “tyranny of the minority” with an altered socio-political or economic order where collective rights are exercised at the expense of individual duties as in leading to an equality of outcome over opportunity. © 2011 Taylor & Francis
- Slides: 7