This gives a collectivist concept of rights:
- Rights originate from the society and are constrained by what contributes to the greater good of the society;
- Individuals exist to serve society and not themselves;
In that context, the primary role of government is not the protection of individual rights as defined by the concept of individual freedom. In the collectivist viewpoint, every individual has rights which are determined to contribute to the greater good, as determined by the state, or more accurately, those in control of the state. Of course, private property is restricted—assuming it exists at all. In this type of society, the individual’s production exists to be distributed as determined by the government and not as determined by the individual. It is the role of government to distribute wealth produced by the workers so that all share equally in the wealth produced.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-european-unions-distorted-theory-of-liberty/
Today, governments in Europe have a broad answer to the question, “What is the role of government?” A culture of interventionism incrusted over many years convinced European governments that everything can be solved with more money, more bureaucrats, and more plans. Needleless to say, with this mindset governments always ask and obtain more power and it’s never assumed that they could become too large. No longer is the government managing the affairs of the State, because all of life is now an affair of the State. Governments have plans about what to do with the life of thier citizens, and opportunely ignore that individuals are planning for their own futures themselves.
The the level of the European Union (EU), bureaucrats, controlling an administrative juggernaut out of reach from national citizens, quietly continue to design new regulations aimed at transforming European societies and every aspect of the life of the “European citizens.” To that end, to what was once the Europe of free trade was added the Europe of standards, regulations, barriers to entry and lobbying, the Europe of common agricultural policy and its quotas, and the Europe of tax harmonization from above. These new regulations are commonly used by governments to strengthen their control over the life of their citizens using as a shelter the need to integrate national laws within the EU regulatory framework.
The institution of the European Union was certainly influenced by how notions of government and its duties regarding the rights and freedom of its citizens evolved over time. Major differences exist on these matters between the United Kingdom, now a former EU member, and the continental European powers. This divergent viewpoint emerges from two ideas of liberty; the modern liberty, as defended in the UK in the nineteenth century, and an old vision of liberty, promoted almost simultaneously by French revolutionaries.
To clarify what makes those two ideas of liberty different—if not literally antagonist—it is worth remembering the political and philosophical context at the end of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. At that time, in many places around Europe, people were looking to escape from absolutism and tyrannical forms of government. British philosophers were thinking about how to move away from the tyranny of absolute monarchy so that rights of citizen could be protected, persevered, and promoted. They came with the modern notion of liberty whose cornerstones were individual freedom and private property rights. The concept of rights were defined such that:
- Rights originate in individuals and nothing constrains them but the rights of other individuals;
- Every individual has the right to take any action that does not interfere with the rights of another individual;
- Individual rights may only be transferred by the individual’s right of consent;
Modern liberty, being all about the rights of the individuals, had a tremendous impact on how government and its duties were defined. Governments should exist to protect the rights of the individual and act as a servant of the people who consent to be governed. Moreover, the moral rights of government can never be greater than the moral rights of the individuals who delegated to government its power.
Philosophers were always concerned by the fact that government could always grow too much and, while taking more power, could become a threat to the people’s rights which it aimed to protect.
Be seeing you
by Tyler DurdenSaturday, Dec 19, 2020 – 7:00
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