The Politics of Rights

Stuart A. Scheingold's landmark work introduced a new understanding of the contribution of rights to progressive social movements, and it continues to stand out as a seminal and provocative book bridging political science and sociolegal studies. Since its original publication, a flourishing body of scholarship has been built on the foundations laid in the original volume. In his new preface, the author provides a cogent and constructive analysis of this new scholarship—which constitutes the legacy of the first edition and the occasion for this thirtieth anniversary second edition. Malcolm Feeley of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, also contributes a new foreword tracing the intellectual roots of The Politics of Rights to the classic texts of social theory and sociolegal studies.

Stuart A. Scheingold is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Washington.

Praise / Awards

• "Scheingold presents a clear, thoughtful discussion of the ways in which rights can both empower and constrain those seeking change in American society. While much of the writing on rights is abstract and obscure, The Politics of Rights stands out as an accessible and engaging discussion." 
  —Gerald N. Rosenberg, University of Chicago
  
• "This book has already exerted an enormous influence on two generations of scholars. It has had an enormous influence on political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists, as well as historians and legal scholars. With this new edition, this influence is likely to continue for still more generations. The Politics of Rights has, I believe, become an American classic." 
  —Malcolm Feeley, University of California, Berkeley, from the Foreword
  

• "Scheingold's new Preface . . . offers a compelling synthesis of contemporary rights-scholarship, one that is not infrequently critical of the arguments of the original text. The open, probing presentation of the new Preface simultaneously links it to Scheingold's original text and makes that Preface itself required reading. Laid side-by-side, in fact, the new and the old constitute a definitive POLITICS OF RIGHTS."
  —Jeffrey R. Dudas, Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut