ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the history of incorporative rights, and analyzes the expression of rights in national constitutions. It considers in turn the background of the three principal types of rights: civil rights, which developed fully by the end of the eighteenth century; political rights, which became a key issue of the nineteenth century; and social/economic rights, the present century's contribution to citizen rights. The world-wide ideological drive to establish a universal set of human rights reflects two central but contradictory ideological developments in modern history. On the one hand there is the ideology of individualism, which reflects the weakening of traditional culture as industrialization and urbanization dislodge the individual from traditional social groups and engender an inward search for identity and meaning. On the other hand there is the ideology of the state as the primary locus of power and authority in society and as a major collective source of identity for individuals dislodged from traditional culture.
