In this report, the notion of individual rights and public order are examined and an argument advanced in favor of the primacy of public order over the rights of the individual. Generally, as Levinson (1988) has commented, in democratic republics such as the United States, the rights of individuals are grounded in a formal Constitution which also establishes the duties of both citizens and government. Even in the most ideal democratic republic, it is likely to be inevitable that there will be conflicts between individual demands for rights and the responsibility of the government to fulfill the social contract by maintaining public order (Lundberg, 1980).
It is argued herein that whereas utilitarianism as a philosophical system may advance the primacy of individual rights, any rational or realistic understanding of the social contract recognizes that the first duty of any society is to ensure that its members will be able to exercise their rights (Schick & Vaughn, 1999). This necessitates the maintenance of public order and may at times require the government to act in a manner that is detrimental to the rights of ordinary citizens. Striking a balance between individual rights and the maintenance of public order is one of the most significant challenges to any democratic government and its polity (Hall, Wiecek, & Finkelman, 1996).
Individual Rights
Rights are understood as adhering to the simple condition of being human. According to Leonard W. Levy (1999), rights emanate from the natural law or a higher source (e.g., God). They are not annexed to individuals by parchments or constitutions. They are created in humans and in human societies by the decrees of nature and providence. Rights are born with the individual, exist within the individual, and cannot and should not be taken from the individual by any human power. In short, individual rights are founded on the immutable maxims of re...