Political theory -- A Political Theory of Rights by Attracta Ingram

A Political Theory of Rights. By Attracta Ingram. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994. 232p. $59.00 cloth, $29.95 paper.

By a "political' theory of rights, Attracta Ingram means a conception of rights as based on self-government or autonomy insofar as it is associated with citizenship in a liberal democracy. This is contrasted with a "proprietary' conception of rights as based on self-ownership with its accompanying economic practices and institutions. The first part of her book presents acute arguments against the self-ownership conception, while the second, larger part works out a detailed development of the political conception.

Let it be said at once that this is a very good book. Although I have some difficulties with various of its phases, overall it provides a set of cogent, thought-provoking analyses and arguments about fundamental issues of the nature and contents of rights.

Ingram states the central point of her project as follows: "The orthodox conception of rights-the libertarian view that rights are a species of moral property in one's person, personal powers, and legitimately acquired external resources-belongs in a theory of justice that fails what is now a widely accepted criterion: justice is what everyone could in principle reach a rational agreement on" (p. 3). So she first takes up the plausible, widely accepted idea that each person has a certain inviolability as being the owner of her person and powers. From this, libertarians infer that to have a right is to have property in or "proprietary control" over oneself and what one does with oneself, so long as one does not harm other persons.

Ingram subjects this idea to a battery of devastating...