What’s Wrong with Rights?

The question of rights can be paradoxical for the left. On the one hand, the left is critical of capitalist triumphalism, and that critique is often couched in terms of rights—the right to water, to housing, to free speech, to assembly. But what happens when that rights discourse is co-opted by capitalism itself—when talk of rights becomes an integral part of the international liberal order? Radha D’Souza aims to untie that knot with What’s Wrong With Rights. Establishing the connection between the rights discourse and modern transnational capitalism, she examines contemporary rights theory through the lens of the experiences of global struggles for national liberation and socialism. The resulting book will challenge preconceived notions across the political spectrum.