What rights and principles did the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) establish?

• A. It proclaimed national sovereignty, equality before the law, liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression, and individual rights for citizens.
• B. It guaranteed universal suffrage for all residents.
• C. It established the Church as the supreme authority over state affairs.
• D. It denied any individual rights in favor of collective rights.

Answer: (A)

At its heart, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen asserts that power comes from the people and that individuals possess fundamental rights that the state must protect. It proclaims national sovereignty, equality before the law, and the rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression, framing these as universal guarantees for citizens. This combination—sovereign power vested in the people and a bill of rights that limits arbitrary authority and protects personal freedoms—is what defines the document’s purpose and impact.

Context helps: written during the French Revolution and shaped by Enlightenment ideas, it challenged the old privilèges and established a new standard that laws should protect individual rights and treat everyone as equals under the law. It doesn’t grant universal voting rights to all residents at that time, it doesn’t place the Church in a supreme state role, and it certainly doesn’t deny individual rights—the opposite is true.