Mittwoch
26
APR

16.15 Uhr

Book Talk: Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times

Prof. Dr. ack Snyder, Political Science Department, Columbia University

Mainstream human rights activists typically attribute the signature successes of their movement—anti-slavery, Gandhi, Martin Luther King—to their uncompromisingly principled stance on behalf of the weak and the exploited. “Naming and shaming” and “ending impunity” loom large in their lore. This attitude works well to recruit idealistic activists, but their moralism, legalism, and secular universalism miss the central role of the self-interest of the majority in powering the progress of human rights. A core of idealists defined aspirational goals, but progress depended on support from majority mass movements and reform parties that gained power through expedient compromise.
The human rights enterprise is now facing fierce pushback from illiberal strongmen and populists who counter-shame the liberal order as decadent, degenerate, and threatening to deeply rooted values. Too often contemporary rights rhetoric plays into the hands of these illiberal critics. Human Rights for Pragmatists explains how rights-based societies can recover a more accurate narrative of their past pragmatic successes, repair their tactical flaws, and withstand illiberal challenges.

Adresse

Gebäude 4130

010.01.05 (Great Lecture Hall, 1st floor)

Voßstrasse 2

69115 Heidelberg

Homepage Veranstaltung

https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/sai/pol/team/2023.html

Veranstalter

Abteilung Politische Wissenschaft

Homepage Veranstalter

http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/sai/pol/index.html

Kontakt

sapol@sai.uni-heidelberg.de