ABSTRACT
Human rights are universal because they claim to apply to all men as men. Vigorous efforts are under way in the world, however, to redefine the content of human rights in order to make them more comfortable for the despotisms that pay them lip service. The issue of human rights may also be a vehicle for transforming the principles and self-understanding of liberal democracies themselves. The redefinition of human rights in the United States to meet the "international" standard is, however, by no means simply an accommodation to the countermeasures of nonliberal nations defending themselves against the painful imposition of liberal standards. Equality before the law remains the core of the traditional democratic position on the rights of citizens. Advocates of group compensation must concede that their program, however just, involves mechanisms that are repulsive to a liberal society. The attractiveness of the compensation argument lies in its claim to avoid problems of right altogether.
