The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens

Georg Jellinek argues in his essay The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen for a universal theory of rights, as opposed to the culturally and nationally specific arguments then in vogue. Jellinek indicates that the French Revolution, which was the focal point of 19th-century political theory, should not be thought of as arising from a purely French tradition (namely the tradition stemming from Jean-Jacques Rousseau) but as a close analogue of revolutionary movements and ideas in England and the United States.