Le droit à la propriété - en anglais

“The individual right of property is not simply an economic right.... Individual property rights are also about self-expression, self-governance, belonging, and civic participation.”

“The right of property is the guardian of every other right, and to deprive a people of this is in fact to deprive them of their liberty”

In line with the spirit of the Enlightenment, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights registers private property as a right: "The property is a sacred and inviolable right."

The concept of property existed before the philosophy of the Enlightenment. Thus, for Rousseau, while making men interdependent, private property allows passage to the civil state. However, making property a right is not anecdotal. The concept of property is henceforth the heart of our society; it is a founding element that makes possible the advent of political and economic liberalisms. Private property gives the owner a right: the right to enjoy and dispose of a thing. But decide on the ownership of something to someone ("private ownership"), is to deny all individuals except one, a right to have this thing. Similarly, it would imply that there exists a right of possession. However, it is exclusive by nature; we can only possess what someone else does not possess. This could affect the formation of a united community. So what legitimates property? Is it a natural right?

Rousseau shows the origin of the property in his book A Dissertation on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind in 1755:

" The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."

Jean-Jacques Rousseau states that private property is the foundation of society. Indeed, before the man was nomadic, violent and developed in its "natural shell." He was in a state of nature.

This shows that, relatively, private property is an important step in human civilization. It is through private property that man aspires to build a society around him to fight against the danger. In addition, settlement allows man to add value to the lands and to appropriate crops. It is a fundamental right. Currently, it is the capitalist system that guarantees private property. Beyond private initiatives, the society wants to advocate the merits of each at the price of his effort. To illustrate this, the former candidate for the U.S. elections in 2012 Mitt Romney spoke of "a merit-based society." It is indeed a society in which individuals taste prosperity through effort. Thus, the accumulation of wealth is impressive. One becomes rich and full of prosperity like Mark Zuckerberg, founder of social network Facebook for example.

However, the penetration of trade in the world standardizes the capitalist model. It is important to ask whether private property does not destroy society. Indeed, capitalism has drawbacks, including

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