Understanding Sen's Idea of a Coherent Goal-Rights System in the Light of Political Liberalism

Abstract

Being qualified as a right implies being recognized as having a universal value. It describes a political ideal of equality in its highly abstract form. Yet, in the exercise of a right, we must consider differences in personal characteristics or social contexts, since the extent to which individuals can concretely exercise rights might differ greatly according to the differences in personal characteristics or social contexts. To respect every individual impartially, we must set up public rules of the effectiveness of rights, which will direct each individual in concrete terms the doings and beings he/her can actually realize depending on his/her will. A Coherent Goal-Rights System mainly focuses on this problem. It is considered as a pluralistic coherent-value system, in which different kinds of values are appropriately balanced under certain criteria, which intends to overcome certain kinds of dualism such as vs. , or vs. . The purpose of this paper is to explore a way to balance social goals and rights, the right to civil freedom, the right to well-being freedom, and the right to political freedom, understanding Sen's idea of a Coherent Goal-Rights System.