Individualism

Individualism is the name given to a social system which has respect to the rights of the individual as sovereign, and is strictly opposed to Socialism. The idea of individualism is centred around rights and freedom of an individual. Essentially, when a person endorses individualism, they believe that the person’s rights are far more important than the rights of any collective group (government or society) provided those rights are not exercised in a way that harms others.

In matter of governance, this idea is often tied to the United States, when Thomas Jefferson insisted the government function as an entity that sought to serve the rights and freedoms of the individual instead of to interfere with them and provoked the authoring of the Bill of Rights. Jeffersonian views were only partly individualist, however, since the Bill of Rights did nothing to protect slaves or Native Americans. True individualistic doctrine would oppose such a stance today.

Nearby pages
Indo-China, Indo-European, Indo-Gangetic, Indo-Germanic, Indu Bhushan Ray, Induced cyclonic circulation