Globalizing human rights? How international trade agreements shape government repression.

摘要

This dissertation brings together scholarly insights in the fields of international political economy and human rights to answer one very controversial question, namely to what extent and in what ways do international trade agreements influence government observance of human rights? My principle claim is a simple one: international trade agreements have become one of the most important forces transforming government observance of human rights today, often providing governments with the interests and the incentives to implement domestic human rights policies and to decrease their employment of repressive practices. The foundation of my contention rests on three basic arguments: that state repression is influenced by cognitively available choices of behavior embedded in international organizations; that state integration into the global trade regime is not, in principle, at odds with the protection of human rights; and that states commonly experience widespread variation across the ways in which their international trade commitments influence their domestic repressive practices. Empirical evidence to support my contention is presented using different statistical and case study methodologies collected on a sample of 169 nation-states during the period 1972 to 2000.