ZHENG Yongnian*

 

In 1949, the renowned British sociologist T.H. Marshall delivered a lecture at the University of Cambridge, at an annual event commemorating the economist Alfred Marshall, who shared his surname. The lecture was titled “Citizenship and Social Class,” and its main focus was to analyze the relationship between civil rights, social policies, and the capitalist market economy. Through an examination of historical developments, Marshall proposed dividing citizenship into three parts or elements: civil, political, and social. Civil rights could be traced back to the 18^th century, political rights to the 19^th century, and social rights to the 20^th century. From a contemporary perspective, Marshall’s classification method has its limitations because the emphasis on “one person, one vote” political rights in the West only gradually materialized after the 1960s, whereas before that, Western societies primarily emphasized economic (or what Marshall referred to as civil) rights and social rights. Nevertheless, Marshall correctly pointed out that rights have a historical nature and are realized through the process of development.

 

While Westerners tend to believe that rights are innate or inherent, the reality is more complex. Regardless of whether it is in the West or non-Western societies, rights are the product of development.The historical development of rights in Western and East Asian countries and regions can be summarized in three major stages: economic rights first, followed by social rights, and then political rights, or in other words, development first, followed by distribution, and finally democracy. Countries and regions that adhere to this sequence tend to develop their rights well, while those that deviate from this order may encounter severe problems or fail to develop their rights effectively.

 

Despite the fact that the United States and Western countries themselves followed this sequence in developing their rights, they have often sought to promote the logic of “rights first, development later” internationally under the dominance of Western ideologies, which has led to underdevelopment and even prolonged poverty in many developing countries. For developing nations, the most critical right to development is achieved through development itself. Once this order is reversed, countries may find themselves stuck in a state of long-term underdevelopment.

 

 

* ZHENG Yongnian, ( 郑永年 ), Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Dean of the Institute for International Affairs, Qianhai.

 

 

(Translated by LI Donglin)