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Individual rights are rights that are granted and guaranteed by the government to the citizens of the United States of America.
Where are they guaranteed?
Individual rights were, from the very founding of this country, a key concern for the revolutionary leaders at the time. These men wanted to set a standard for how the government and society should treat individuals. They also put huge emphasis on individual rights to make sure the people were able to face against their government should the country’s founding ideals be forgotten. Freedom from unwarranted search and seizure, and the right to bear arms are examples of these individual rights.
The "common good" is not as easy to define. However the general idea with it is that in certain situations, the rights of individuals must step down in favor of the collective will of a group or community.
As we can see, the constitution states that it is the government's duty to uphold the common good.
But didn't it (the Constitution), and the Declaration of Independence also declare that individual rights were above all, and that it was the government's duty to protect them at all costs? As we shall see, this debate does not always have an easy answer.
Simply put, this is defined as the struggle of the rights of the individual and the "common good", and how to balance them. This has been a topic of much debate and conflict throughout United States history, all the way back to its founding. But what do we mean when we say "individual rights" and "the common good"?
In the Declaration of Independence
and in the Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights lists our individual rights as citizens, some of the most basic of these freedoms are of press, religion, and speech.
The Declaration of Independence states that all people have certain unalienable rights, and that it is the government's duty to protect these rights.
What does the constitution have to say about the common good?
The Preamble to the Constitution states what the government's fundamental purposes are.
"...promote the general Welfare" means to support the common good.
In Support of
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
In Support of
THE COMMON GOOD