These two are correct:
- All men have natural rights.
- The purpose of government is to protect natural rights.
Explanation:
The Scientific Revolution had shown that there are natural laws in place in the physical world and in the universe at large. Applying similar principles to matters like government and society, Enlightenment thinkers believed that using reason will guide us to the best ways to operate politically so we can create the most beneficial conditions for society. John Locke and other Enlightenment era thinkers wrote with strong conviction that all human beings have certain natural rights which are to be protected and preserved. Each individual's well-being (life, health, liberty, possessions) should be served by the way government and society are arranged.
The Declaration of Independence states these Enlightenment views on natural rights in this way:
- <em>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.</em>
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen opens with this assertion:
- <em>The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties.</em>
Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. An example is businesses being able to participate in free trade.
Confucianism emerged as a philosophy of social conduct rather than as a belief in one or more deities.
The welfare of a country depends on various factors, including access to education, health, the right to security, low unemployment rates among others.
There are different indicators created in order to effectively measure welfare in a country. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita, shows the amount of income after it has been evenly distributed among all of the citizens of a country. This, however, does not assess the issue of determining if, in fact, the income is being distributed equally. For this purpose, there is another indicator called the GINI index, which measures the actual equality in the distribution of income among the citizens of a country.
The Act, reaffirming the 15th Amendment, prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." This act is supposed to protect citizens from arbitrary rules and regulations that may deter them or attempt to deter them for no other reason then to deter them. Such as the new voter ID laws in several states across the country, these are currently under scrutiny for deterring voters. A key element in this act, specifically intended by Congress was to outlaw the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests in order to register to vote. This was a method that had been previously used to deter poor African Americans from voting. The Act also established extensive federal oversight of elections administration, providing that states with a history of discriminatory voting practices (so-called "covered jurisdictions") could not implement any change affecting voting without first obtaining the approval of the Department of Justice, a process known as preclearance. This is an issue that Florida is currently dealing with. The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." However, for years the South would use "devices", of any kind, to circumvent the law and were successful in deterring 50% of the Black vote.
