The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen includes several Enlightenment ideas. Which statement is not one of them?

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen includes several Enlightenment ideas. Which statement is not one of them?

• A. Citizens should have a voice in the government decisions on their behalf
• B. People are incapable of ruling themselves because they are inherently disorganized and chaotic
• C. All citizens possess basic human rights (eg. freedom of speech)
• D. People give rights to their governments to limit their power

Answer: (B)

The statement that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen embodies is the belief that people are capable of governing themselves and that government exists to protect natural rights through the consent of the governed. The not-part-of-the-Enlightenment idea is the opposite: that people are inherently unable to rule themselves. Enlightenment thinking, drawn from thinkers like Locke and Rousseau, argues that reason justifies governance and that legitimate authority comes from the people’s consent to protect fundamental rights. Why the other ideas fit: allowing citizens a voice in government aligns with popular sovereignty and representative government; the guarantee of basic rights like freedom of speech reflects the natural rights and civil liberties emphasized by the declaration; and the notion that people grant powers to the government to limit those powers echoes the social contract idea that authority is granted to protect rights, not to overpower them.

The statement that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen embodies is the belief that people are capable of governing themselves and that government exists to protect natural rights through the consent of the governed. The not-part-of-the-Enlightenment idea is the opposite: that people are inherently unable to rule themselves. Enlightenment thinking, drawn from thinkers like Locke and Rousseau, argues that reason justifies governance and that legitimate authority comes from the people’s consent to protect fundamental rights.

Why the other ideas fit: allowing citizens a voice in government aligns with popular sovereignty and representative government; the guarantee of basic rights like freedom of speech reflects the natural rights and civil liberties emphasized by the declaration; and the notion that people grant powers to the government to limit those powers echoes the social contract idea that authority is granted to protect rights, not to overpower them.