Ep. 80: Guy Aitchison on Popular Resistance and the Idea of Rights

“There’s a tradition of these rights being claimed by groups who were excluded and who they weren’t originally intended for, because they have that possibility inherent to them, which is the idea of universal equality and universal freedom.” Dr. Guy Aitchison joins the Democratic Constitution Podcast to talk about his 2020 article, “Popular Resistance and the Idea of Rights,” in which he argues for the role of rights as a vocabulary of political critique and struggle. Our conversation touches the neo-republican conception of rights, rights claims as speech acts and forms of communication, the importance of “moral rights,” and the Declaration of Independence. Listeners may find some of the themes familiar, including C.B. Macpherson’s concept of possessive individualism—discussed both in our reader on universal and equal human rights and in my interview with Matt McManus—as well as the history of the Levellers, which I explored in a recent article. Gil Schaeffer’s recent article argues for the radicality of the Declaration of Independence’s invocation of universal and equal rights. I make the same argument here. The photo for this week’s episode is from a 1964 demonstration in Atlantic City in support of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.