Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Rights as Weapons : Instruments of Conflict, Tools of Power / Clifford Bob.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2019]Copyright date: ©2019Description: 1 online resource (280 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691166049
  • 9780691189055
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 323 23
LOC classification:
  • JC571
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- 1. Introduction: The Uses of Rights in Political Conflict -- PART I. PREPARING FOR CONFLICT -- 2. Rights as Rallying Cries: Mobilizing Support -- 3. Rights as Shields and Parries: Countering Threats -- PART II. CONTENDING WITH FOES -- 4. Rights as Camouflage: Masking Motives -- 5. Rights as Spears: Overturning Laws -- 6. Rights as Dynamite: Destroying Cultures -- PART III. THWARTING THIRD PARTIES -- 7. Rights as Blockades: Suppressing Subordinates -- 8. Rights as Wedges: Breaking Coalitions -- 9. Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix -- Notes -- Index
Summary: An in-depth look at the historic and strategic deployment of rights in political conflicts throughout the worldRights are usually viewed as defensive concepts representing mankind's highest aspirations to protect the vulnerable and uplift the downtrodden. But since the Enlightenment, political combatants have also used rights belligerently, to batter despised communities, demolish existing institutions, and smash opposing ideas. Delving into a range of historical and contemporary conflicts from all areas of the globe, Rights as Weapons focuses on the underexamined ways in which the powerful wield rights as aggressive weapons against the weak.Clifford Bob looks at how political forces use rights as rallying cries: naturalizing novel claims as rights inherent in humanity, absolutizing them as trumps over rival interests or community concerns, universalizing them as transcultural and transhistorical, and depoliticizing them as concepts beyond debate. He shows how powerful proponents employ rights as camouflage to cover ulterior motives, as crowbars to break rival coalitions, as blockades to suppress subordinate groups, as spears to puncture discrete policies, and as dynamite to explode whole societies. And he demonstrates how the targets of rights campaigns repulse such assaults, using their own rights-like weapons: denying the abuses they are accused of, constructing rival rights to protect themselves, portraying themselves as victims rather than violators, and repudiating authoritative decisions against them. This sophisticated framework is applied to a diverse range of examples, including nineteenth-century voting rights movements; the American civil rights movement; nationalist, populist, and religious movements in today's Europe; and internationalized conflicts related to Palestinian self-determination, animal rights, gay rights, and transgender rights.Comparing key episodes in the deployment of rights, Rights as Weapons opens new perspectives on an idea that is central to legal and political conflicts.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780691189055

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- 1. Introduction: The Uses of Rights in Political Conflict -- PART I. PREPARING FOR CONFLICT -- 2. Rights as Rallying Cries: Mobilizing Support -- 3. Rights as Shields and Parries: Countering Threats -- PART II. CONTENDING WITH FOES -- 4. Rights as Camouflage: Masking Motives -- 5. Rights as Spears: Overturning Laws -- 6. Rights as Dynamite: Destroying Cultures -- PART III. THWARTING THIRD PARTIES -- 7. Rights as Blockades: Suppressing Subordinates -- 8. Rights as Wedges: Breaking Coalitions -- 9. Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix -- Notes -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

An in-depth look at the historic and strategic deployment of rights in political conflicts throughout the worldRights are usually viewed as defensive concepts representing mankind's highest aspirations to protect the vulnerable and uplift the downtrodden. But since the Enlightenment, political combatants have also used rights belligerently, to batter despised communities, demolish existing institutions, and smash opposing ideas. Delving into a range of historical and contemporary conflicts from all areas of the globe, Rights as Weapons focuses on the underexamined ways in which the powerful wield rights as aggressive weapons against the weak.Clifford Bob looks at how political forces use rights as rallying cries: naturalizing novel claims as rights inherent in humanity, absolutizing them as trumps over rival interests or community concerns, universalizing them as transcultural and transhistorical, and depoliticizing them as concepts beyond debate. He shows how powerful proponents employ rights as camouflage to cover ulterior motives, as crowbars to break rival coalitions, as blockades to suppress subordinate groups, as spears to puncture discrete policies, and as dynamite to explode whole societies. And he demonstrates how the targets of rights campaigns repulse such assaults, using their own rights-like weapons: denying the abuses they are accused of, constructing rival rights to protect themselves, portraying themselves as victims rather than violators, and repudiating authoritative decisions against them. This sophisticated framework is applied to a diverse range of examples, including nineteenth-century voting rights movements; the American civil rights movement; nationalist, populist, and religious movements in today's Europe; and internationalized conflicts related to Palestinian self-determination, animal rights, gay rights, and transgender rights.Comparing key episodes in the deployment of rights, Rights as Weapons opens new perspectives on an idea that is central to legal and political conflicts.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 21. Jun 2021)