Modernist understanding of rights

The modernist perspective assumes that power should be equally distributed among all the people and the basis of the power should be adult suffrage. This assumes the working of democracy – the rule of law rather than rule of traditional authority – which is non-discriminatory and which is expected to satisfy the aspirations of all sections of society. The modernist theories of Marx, Weber and Parsons provide the model of dynamics of this society. Each of them, however, differs from the other regarding the genesis and possibility of removal of the inequality. For example, for Marx, in capitalist society the working classes have been denied power because those who own the means of production are also the powerful people – feudal lords, kings, monarchs, or the capitalists. This happens for two reasons: first, they are the owners and controls the means of production; and second because the political, legal and moral ideas are also determined by the production relations. Using this theory one may say that inequality with respect to access to means of production is the major cause of lack of political freedom and emancipation of the working classes requires a fundamental change in the class relations. Weber views the possibility of some disjunction between power, status and class in modern society and for him complete equality or emancipation of all may not ever happen. The power is dispersed in a complex manner and the various models of power are not always homologous. Parsons, using a functionalist model of society, suggests that power is always confined to a few people who have been given the authority to protect the interests of the whole society. If the power holders fail to protect the interests of society their power may be withheld by the members of society and given to a new set of people or groups. Thus the power always belongs to society though exercised by a small number of people on behalf of society. Earlier some elite theorists like Pareto and Mosca had a similar conception of power that power belongs to a small group of people called elite and but unlike Parsons they did not view that the function of power is to serve society’s interests. For them power is always concentrated among a few people only. Thus in the modernist perspective emancipation refers to processes of empowerment of the powerless. This may happen through proletarian revolution which expectedly transforms the class relations of society, through reforms and accommodations, through rise of multiple interest/pressure groups or civil society action. At the end of this process the powerless people feel more powerful and feel that their rights have been protected.