Human Rights Ideology and Dimensions of Power: A Radical Approach to the State, Property, and Discrimination

This article advances the argument that there is a distinct ideology of Human Rights embedded in the International Bill of Rights (IBR). Instead of contrasting ideologies in terms of their stance on equality and liberty, it suggests employing three dimensions of power—political, economic, and social that are defined in relation to the positions taken on the state, property, and discrimination, respectively—in assessing the extent to which ideologies oppose the concentration of power and promise emancipation. It then analyzes the three documents that constitute the IBR as the textual sources of a distinct Human Rights Ideology on these three dimensions to reveal its radical and emancipatory characteristics, which tend to be missed or deliberately undermined. It questions the aptness of liberal democracy, the welfare state, and the capitalist economy for fulfilling the main premise of this ideology—equality in dignity.