Arguing that here has never been a consensus to which rights all people are entitled, Beyond Illiberalism: Rights, Rhetoric, and Reality in a Pluralistic World traces how the concept of human rights is tied to a global project rooted in colonialism and grounded in 19th century liberalism and post-War social democratic principles.

While rights seem to exist universally - existing within societies and states that have not been shaped by the nineteenth century liberal values - this book contends that human rights are conceived, imagined, and promoted by dominant states, organizations and activists within a specific liberal framework, and that, after more than 200 years, the dream of a universal history rooted in the worldview of G.W.F. Hegel has been displaced by the stuff of practical reality.

After Hegel then shifts our attention to rights as a matter of human practice and emphasizes the importance of the actualization of rights within local contexts, demonstrating the spuriousness of the common Western division of regimes into 'liberal' and 'illiberal' based on notions of rights. This book will appeal to scholars of anthropology, sociology, socio-legal studies and cultural studies.

About the Author

Robert Shepherd is the editor of Critical Asian Studies and a research fellow at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies in Washington, DC. He previously served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Nepal, worked for the United Nations in China and Indonesia, and taught courses on human rights and development at George Washington University, USA.

Book Information
ISBN 9781032829241
Author Robert Shepherd
Format Hardback
Page Count 176
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd