Abstract
The United States declaration of rights proclaims three main rights: right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. They are perceived as intrinsic to human beings. These principles were built in opposition to the monarchy and were supposed to ensure the people their rights, in the sense of individual and collective rights as well as political and civil rights. However, one century later, criticism emerged from some socialist scholars such as Proudhon, Marx, Bebel and Engels. They argued that the revolutions and declarations of rights were only the outcome of the Bourgeoisie's seizure of power. Its conception of rights is subverted in the view of socialism and cannot fit into actual equality and freedom. In this document, we analyze how these thinkers criticize the common classical liberal assumptions about human rights. By classical liberal assumptions, we mean property, equality and political emancipation reached by political and civil rights.
