Political rights of citizenship | Citizenship | High school civics | Khan Academy

In the last video, we discussed personal rights: all the rights that citizens of the United States have to control their own bodies and minds. In this video, we're going to talk about political rights, which are the rights of citizens to participate in the actions associated with governance.

So, what are some of these rights? First, there's freedom of association. This means that you can join a political party or a special interest group that represents you. You're not obligated to belong to a particular party backed by the government, and you can't be discriminated against for belonging to a political organization.

There are the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly, and petition. This means that you can share political ideas, print political ideas, assemble for political purposes like a conference or a protest march, and ask the government to correct a wrong without fear of punishment.

One of the most important political rights is the right to vote. Citizens may vote as they choose according to the laws of their state. There's also the right to run for public office. Anyone who meets the criteria specified by the Constitution and their state or municipality may run for elected office without government interference.

Now, you may be asking, "Wait, what's the difference between political rights and civil rights?" Well, civil rights overlap with these rights as well as with personal rights. Because civil rights protect people who belong to marginalized groups from discrimination. So, if a society permits some people to vote but not others based on their race, sex, religion, or other characteristic, that society is infringing on the civil rights of those citizens by denying them their political rights.

So, let's take a look at a few scenarios to practice our understanding of political rights. I'll give you a scenario, and you see if you can identify which political right is being exercised or violated.

First, Parvati's best friend Natalie is running for city council. She wants to show her support, so she checks Natalie's name on the election ballot. Which right did Parvati exercise? If you said the right to vote, you're correct.

All right, next up: PG posts on her social media, encouraging people to vote for the Democratic candidate for governor. An admissions officer at the public university PG got into is the brother of the Republican candidate. He rescinds PG's offer of admission based on her support for the Democratic candidate. Which political right did the admissions officer violate in this scenario? This is a violation of PG's right to political freedom of speech.

Okay, last one: Spencer has been an avid hunter since he was a kid and is interested in joining the National Rifle Association. His boss, Charles, doesn't like guns and doesn't want Spencer to join the NRA. If Charles tries to prohibit Spencer from joining the NRA, which of Spencer's rights would he be violating? He would be violating Spencer's right to freedom of association, which means that he can join groups without fear of reprisal.

Okay, that's all for now. Which do you think is the most important political right that citizens have?