Social democracy, human rights, and social justice

This paper poses the question of whether social democratic parties in Europe can bridge the growing gap between the socially-progressive agenda framed in terms of human rights and the traditional social democratic quest for economic democracy. Since the shift from class politics to identity politics in the 1970s, social democracy has embraced the liberal discourse of human rights. It is argued that the concept of human rights is predominantly liberal and individualistic. When a person claims that they have a “right to life” or a “right to express their opinion”, an autonomous space – a space free from the interference of other people – is being demanded. Following John Searle’s philosophy of language, this paper argues that the ontology of “human rights” is best understood in terms of a declaration as a specifi c speech act, thus the utilitarian critique of human rights is naïve and one-sided. Being part of an institutionalised international legal practice, “human rights” presuppose a club of political communities which accept them as valid and agree to inscribe them into their legal systems. Given that the nature of human rights is one of individual entitlement, this paper concludes that the language of social justice and solidarity should be preferred in the struggles of socialists against the ongoing discrimination of marginalised groups.