ABSTRACT
Most political issues are about social problems, and these in turn involve such values as security, fairness, inclusiveness, equality, and freedom, every one of which can be either expanded or shrunk. Values have become all the rage in American politics. People are driven or motivated by interests. Every interest is the interest of someone in something. Strictly speaking, only individuals can have interests, because these are biological urges or mental drives. Personal security has three main dimensions—environmental, biological, and economic. Environmental security is protection against natural disasters, such as tornadoes, and man-made disasters, such as industrial pollution and global warming. Political scientists are understandably interested in political equality, as in the formulas "one man, one vote" and "one nation, one vote". Whether explicit or implicit, rights and duties are social, not natural, as shown by the emergence and submergence of the various rights along history. All societies secure some rights without moral justification.
