More rights

OK. I'll start to try and make some sense of the concept of rights.

What are rights other than a social construct? And if a socail construct is the concept of rights valid in a non homogenous society?

I think rights as a social construct are not rights at all but a manifestation of that societies rules.

For example western society, or at least its commentators, hold "democracy", that is the right to vote, as an important right and one that can be used to justify at least in part inflicting violence on non democratic societies.

In contrast the Chinese, and not just the political class, are suspicious of democracy, as in a non homongenous society it is a force for instability and for historical reasons the Chinese value stability as the same class as right as we consider democracy.

Democracy, IMHO, is only an important right in a homogenous society where the vast majority accept the same social norms. Democracy is an evil in many other societies because, even with fair voting, it gives power to a cultural majority and leads to the tyranny of the majority. The genocide in Rwanda is just one example of the cultural and ethnic problems which democracy can only agravate. Iraq is another. We have removed the dictatorship of the minority Sunni muslim and replaced it with the tyranny of the majority Shia muslims. Democracy can do nothing to improve the situation in Iraq and may well be part of the ongoing problems.

Of course democracy is a valid right in societies which are homgenous such as Western Europe. However a good example of the weakness of democracy can be seen in the history of modern Turkey. The Ataturk set up a non theocratic democracy guaranteed by the army. On numerous occasions the army has felt the need to remove the elected government to safeguard the constitution. Now that an islamic party is in government there are on going concerns that religion is becoming a factor in government policy.

As far as I can see the right to vote is an example of a social right valid only in certain societies.