Human Rights and Private Property

Human rights have evolved as three somewhat overlapping sets, namely, civil, political, and social rights. With the continual expansion of corporations, or accumulated capital, civil rights have been divided into individual and corporate rights. The latter, as forms of collective rights, came to prevail in production, distribution, and circulation, leaving individual civil rights exercisable mainly in relation to consumables. Political rights were limited to the right to vote, stand for election, petition the government, and choose between political parties with predetermined policies. Social rights, as countervailing rights, grew from resistance to the chronic inability of the marketplace and workplace to maintain the well-being of subordinate classes, and from corporate and state acknowledgement of the need to maintain the well-being of the productive classes reflecting the needs of capital. All these rights have now become circumscribed by transnational corporate rights, defined by global institutions in the global economy.