Everyone by default has a number of rights and freedoms. They are necessary for the possibility of independent development. One of the most important is political freedom. What is it, why is it necessary and how can it be implemented?
general information
Freedom is often understood as something static. But the fact is that her nature is dynamic. She can easily transform into her opposite. Thus, conditional slavery can only be the product of a falsely directed freedom. This is due to the controversy of its nature and definitions. The most common of them says that it consists in the fact that a person can express the essence of his consciousness. But what is political freedom? This is not only a choice (after all, it is only one constituent element). In this case, it means not only the ability to dwell on one of the presented, but also to make only your decision. In modern society, political freedom is considered a natural and inalienable quality from social communities and a person, which is expressed in the absence of interference in his choice.
Development features
Two aspects are distinguished here. The first is negative, since it frees from coercion and pressure from the state (in its relations with a person). The second aspect is positive. It defines the purpose of freedom. To deal with it, a person needs to answer such questions: what is it for? For what? Also, this aspect allows you to provide everyone with the opportunity to discover the potential of their personality, when there are relationships between different individuals, segments of society and the country, which is represented by state bodies. Political human freedom began to be considered since the time of ancient democracy. Then it was believed that the freer a person is, the more time is devoted to them for questions of governing the country. Moreover, there is submission, not to the master, but to the law.
A new round of research
But over time, Antiquity fell, and religion became dominant. Under her political freedom of citizens faded into the background and was actively raised exclusively by rebels and various liberation movements. Actively, thinkers of the Renaissance and Reformation epochs returned and began to discuss it. True, they have already devoted special attention to the individual aspects of human freedom. And in the spirit of the times it was considered that people, and not God, were of primary importance. Therefore, they emphasized the importance of man, equality and justice, which should be in society. In the new time, there was a formation of the understanding that during life with other people, freedom can only be limited. In the era of enlightenment, two main aspects stood out. So, political freedom was considered in relation to the political system and individuals. Moreover, both aspects are taken into account and function together and interconnected. Reasonable restraint and restriction should be provided, since freedom can be absent even in those cases when, theoretically, it must be.
Time of revolution
When the great bourgeois revolution took place in France, then they adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. It established that all people were born free and equal. The existing social differences were necessary for everyone. Here, freedom meant the ability to do everything that does not harm others. To facilitate the formation of borders, law should be used.By the way, it was in this era of revolutions that the freedom of their sphere of moral philosophy flowed onto the political plane. The important point is that political freedom is the highest development of personal freedom, since it implies independence, independence and security (as well as the right to influence aspects of government).
Going up to date
We already know what political freedom is. The definition of this term has changed more than once since its inception. But when everything was transferred to the political plane, then initially he expressed mainly the interests of the bourgeoisie. This was especially acute when discussing private property, problems of relations and the state being created. Then came the concept of political freedom of man: positive and negative. The first implied the possibility of self-improvement and self-development, the disclosure of internal potential and creative abilities. The negative concept considered the absence of coercion and interference: protection from cruelty, violence, dictatorship coming from the state or other people.
Three levels
In order to be able to judge what degree of political freedom is taking place, it is necessary to know the possible states of this aspect of human and public life. And three levels of implementation will help us in this. Their features are as follows:
- First level. Here, freedom manifests itself in the form of an internal characteristic of a person, which is an inherent property of a person. An example is the will to act, which underlies social self-regulation. Thanks to this, each subject of society has certain opportunities in society: legal capacity and legal capacity.
- Second level. It characterizes the ability to be considered the master of one’s own life and make decisions that depend on the person himself, without being subject to restrictions and / or violence. It also provides for the construction of relations with society (collective, society) on certain principles.
- Third level. This implies the existence of opportunities for self-organization of the population to build verified and clearly regulated relations between a person, society and the state apparatus. Here people can act not only as independent and independent personalities, but also as active subjects. The political freedom provided here makes it possible to choose among different options for active behavior that will affect other individuals.
Conflicts and their solution
At the moment, you can see that the opposite approaches are expressed relative to one concept. As political thought formed, various characteristics of freedoms formed. So, now it’s quite popular to say that it was exchanged by people for a guarantee of security. The opposite of it suggests that freedom is possible only where the state is based on law and power is divided between different bodies (and they are also controlled by the public). Therefore, political freedom is considered separately for states and individuals. On the one hand, it is perceived as participating in collective power through elections. From another point of view, political freedom is the use of personal independence. Therefore, it is important how many human rights are exercised. And how many of them correspond to his personal interests. In this case, personal rights and freedoms that belong to the citizens of a certain state on its territory should be separated. But it should be noted that they should be equally protected by the country's judicial system. Even though many of them involve dissent, criticism, and various anti-government actions such as rallies and demonstrations.
What is the situation in the Russian Federation?
In the Constitution of the Russian Federation, political freedoms along with a person and his rights are the highest value. The state is obligated to recognize, observe and protect the people and citizens of the country. It is in the constitution that a person can take part in state and public affairs, can hold positions, create various trade unions and associations (and actively participate in them). The Constitution provides a guarantee of freedom of conscience, the opportunity to participate in peaceful demonstrations, rallies, meetings, pickets and street processions. The 29th article is of most interest to us. It proclaims the freedom of thought and speech. By this is meant the creation of such a situation in which pressure on the personality, its lifestyle and consciousness is excluded. She has the freedom of expression. Also, people have the right to publicly express their views on any problem, action, words, and so on. But it must be remembered that propaganda of religious, linguistic, social, national or racial superiority is prohibited.
Conclusion
Political freedom is a valuable acquisition of the human community. Many people do not even understand how important it is, and therefore do not try to realize it and use the benefits it provides. After all, it provides for the possibility of self-realization of a person, his development and building an integrated civil society. But at the same time, the limits for it were still not created. How to understand how to limit people? Based on what to make these decisions? There are still a very large number of different questions that need to be answered. Well, this is not surprising - after all, society still continues to develop, so we need to find the optimal model of interpersonal and social ties.
