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Emancipation

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Emancipationhas many meanings; in political terms, it often means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability that violates basic human rights, such asUniversal Declaration of Human Rights.Politically it is also used as a guise to procure state power offering the appearance of helpingeconomic and social rights,political rightsorequality,often as a pretext for using specificallydisenfranchisedgroups as political proxies in a rhetorical strategy to justify greater state authority over all individuals.

Among others,Karl Marxused the term political emancipation in his 1844 essay "On the Jewish Question",although often in addition to (or in contrast with) the termhuman emancipation.Marx's views of political emancipation in this work were summarized by one writer as entailing assimilationist policies under the guise of the "equal status of individual citizens in relation to the state,(but never emancipation from the state)equality before the law,regardless of race, identity, religion, property, or other characteristics of individual people. "[1]

"Political emancipation" as aphraseis less common in modern usage, especially outside academic, foreign or ego-activist contexts. However, similar concepts may be referred to by other terms. For instance, in the United States theCivil Rights movementculminated in theCivil Rights Act of 1964,theVoting Rights Act of 1965,and theFair Housing Act of 1968,which can collectively be seen as further realization of events such as theEmancipation Proclamationand the abolition of slavery a century earlier. In the current and formerBritish West Indiesislands the holidayEmancipation Dayis celebrated to mark the end of theAtlantic slave trade.[2]

Etymology

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The termemancipationderives from the Latinēmancĭpo/ēmancĭpatio(the act of liberating a child from parental authority) which in turn stems fromēmanucapere(capture from someone else's hand).

See also

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References

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  1. ^In other words, as stipulated in the Constitution of the United States of America.Notes on Political and Human Emancipation,Mark Rupert, Syracuse University.
  2. ^"Emancipation Movements | Slavery and Remembrance".

Further reading

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