Critical Theory and Human Rights: From Compassion to Coercion

By David McGrogan

This book describes how human rights have given rise to a vision of benevolent governance that, if fully realised, would be antithetical to individual freedom. It describes human rights' evolution into a grand but nebulous project, rooted in compassion, with the overarching aim of improving universal welfare by defining the conditions of human well-being and imposing obligations on the state and other actors to realise them. This gives rise to a form of managerialism, preoccupied with measuring and improving the 'human rights performance' of the state, businesses and so on. The ultimate result is the 'governmentalisation' of a pastoral form of global human rights governance, in which power is exercised for the general good, moulded by a complex regulatory sphere which shapes the field of action for the individual at every turn. This, unsurprisingly, does not appeal to rights-holders themselves.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 152613182X
• ISBN13: 9781526131829
• Release Date: April 2021
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"