Civil Rights In The 18th Century

Civil rights in the 18th century came first. This idea combined rule of law and equality before the law. Civil rights are those “necessary to individual freedom—liberty of the person, freedom of thought, speech and faith, the right to own property and to conclude valid contracts and the right to justice.”(Marshall 8) Individual’s civil rights consequently undid certain customs and statues, which previously limited the “right to work”. Working class people were now able to legally pursue employment. It is a right that also related to the need of capitalism in labor markets. “Citizenship” and “freedom,” at least individual freedom, appear to become interchangeable terms in this instance, Marshall says, “when freedom became universal, citizenship grew from a local into an international institution” (Marshall 12). This development of rights leads to a problem. If you were to accept that equality comes before the law, shouldn’t you also be able to use the principle of equality when electing lawmakers? The idea of civil citizenship contains within itself what Marshall calls a “drive” to further advance equality, this is what Marshall calls political equality. The rationality of civil rights gets in the way of the idea that political rights

During the Reform of 1832, Parliament was very limited, but this reform was the one of the first attempts for political rights to move forward. This attempt slowly led to universal suffrage overtime. By a citizens participation in such reforms political rights were eventually able to catch up with civil rights. Working people and woman eventually gained the right to vote through these reforms. Together with these advances, the labor movement was also able to succeed and a Labor Party was added into parliament. The results of this path agree with a liberal democracy and are showing that social rights must follow from political and civil