The antecedents of social rights in Spain in the 16th century

Abstract

 In this article, we analyse the seminal work on the care of the poor of three Spanish thinkers from the 16th century; Juan Luis Vives, Domingo de Soto, and Juan de Robles. Although the concept of “social rights”, as we understand it today, was not explicitly developed in their work, it could be argued that all three authors designed the basic principles underlying the concept of social rights: individual freedom, equality, respect for the human dignity of the poor, and State intervention. We also discuss the ideological context in which the authors developed their work.