How Rights Are Exercised There is another reason for this connection.
Private property is essential to the exercise of individual rights.
To turn it around, in the absence of private property, the exercise of whatever may be proclaimed as rights will be dependent upon who controls the property. This latter principle has been well illustrated in the Soviet Union in the matter of religion. The Soviet Constitution proclaims the right to the free exercise of religion. It is very nearly an empty right, however, because churches do not have the private property to facilitate its free exercise. All schools are governmentally owned and run, and religion may not be taught in them.