A positive right is a right, either moral or decreed by law, to be provided with something through the action of another person or group of people (usually a state). Positive rights are sometimes contrasted with negative rights, which are rights to not be subject to the action of another. The former prescribe action, while the latter proscribe action. A right is the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled or a thing to which one has a just claim. ... A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. ... A negative right is a right, either moral or decreed by law, to not be subject to an action of another human being (usually abuse or coercion). ...

For example, a right to an education is a positive right because education must be provided by a series of positive actions by others. A school system, teachers and materials must be actively provided in order for such a right to be fulfilled. The right to be secure in one's home, however, is a negative right. In order for it to be fulfilled, others need take no particular action but merely refrain from certain actions, specifically trespassing or breaking into the home in question.

Different political philosophies have different opinions concerning positive and negative rights. Under socialism and social democracy, positive rights are considered an essential part of the social or governmental contract: something that society promises to all its members. Under these philosophies there need be no particular distinction between positive or negative rights, rather they tend to be all grouped together. Philosophy is a discipline or field of study involving the investigation, analysis, and development of ideas at a general, abstract, or fundamental level. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Social contract is a phrase used in philosophy, political science, and sociology to denote a real or hypothetical agreement within a state regarding the rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens, or more generally a similar concord between a group and its members. ...

Libertarians and other critics of the notion of positive rights hold that positive rights could only be guaranteed to any one person by abridging the negative rights of others. For instance, if a citizen had the right to a house, this would imply that if he did not produce or obtain a house for himself that others would be compelled to provide one for him. This is not an ethical compulsion (others should provide a house out of charity) but rather political compulsion: the state must require others to provide a house (usually by taxation). This political compulsion, they hold, necessarily contravenes the existence of a (negative) right to private property. If one person's property may rightly be taken to pay for someone else's house, then the first person cannot be said to have a right to that property. This article deals with the libertarianism as defined in America and several other nations. ... The Elections and Parties Series Democracy Representative democracy History of democracy Referenda Liberal democracy Representation Voting Voting systems Ideology Elections Elections by country Elections by calendar Electoral systems Politics Politics by country Political campaigns Political science Political philosophy Related topics Political parties Parties by country Parties by name Parties by... // Use of the term The concept of property or ownership has no single or universally accepted definition. ...

Many positive rights are economic in nature: they involve the rights-holder being assured of the provision of some economic good such as housing, a job, a pension, health care, or the enforcement of exclusive rights in inventions or in works of authorship. Under most systems of social democracy, these are provided under some manner of public welfare system, in which public funds are used to establish public housing, works programs, social security, and the like. U.S. Economic Calendar Economics at the Open Directory Project Economics textbooks on Wikibooks The Economists Economics A-Z Institutions and organizations Bureau of Labor Statistics - from the American Labor Department Center for Economic and Policy Research (USA) National Bureau of Economic Research (USA) - Economics material from the organization... A pension (also known as superannuation) is a retirement plan intended to provide a person with a secure income for life. ... Health care or healthcare is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions [[1]]. The healthcare industry is one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing industries, consuming over 10... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or substance (known as an invention) which is new, inventive and useful. ... For copyright issues in relation to Wikipedia itself, see Wikipedia:Copyrights. ... Public housing or social housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. ... Social Security in the United States is a social insurance program funded through a dedicated payroll tax. ...

In contrast, negative rights are usually not directly economic in nature, although the right to security in private property is considered an economic negative right in that it entails freedom from theft or state confiscation. Other negative rights include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, freedom from violent crime and freedom from involuntary servitude. A public demonstration Freedom of speech is often regarded as an integral concept in modern liberal democracies, where it is understood to outlaw censorship. ... Freedom of the press (or press freedom) is the guarantee by a government of free public speech for its citizens and their associations, extended to members of news gathering organizations, and their published reporting. ... Freedom of religion is a modern legal concept of being free as a matter of right, while freedom of worship is based upon the free expression of that right. ... Amendment II (the Second Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. ... A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens violent force upon the victim. ... Involuntary servitude is the condition of a person laboring to benefit another against his will due to coercive influence directed toward him. ...

The concept of a positive right is very similar to Isaiah Berlin's concept of Positive liberty (an idea he was strongly critical of). Sir Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin (June 6, 1909 – November 5, 1997) was a political philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the 20th century. ... Positive liberty, essentially identical with the concept of positive right, an idea that was first expressed and analyzed as a separate conception of liberty by John Stuart Mill but most notably described by Isaiah Berlin, refers to the ability to act to fulfill ones own potential, as opposed to...

See also

• Positive liberty
• Negative right
• Negative liberty
• Social rights
• List of anti-discrimination acts
• Discrimination