Social Power and Support for Human Rights in Cross-National Perspective

• In Event: 2154 - Human Rights Paper Session

Abstract

In the early 21st Century state power comes in four basic forms basic idealized forms—political power (e.g., democracies and single-party states), economic power, ideologicalpower,and military power (Mann 2008). All four types of social power are interrelated. Although not conceptualized as such, aspects of each of these types of power have been proposed as predictors of human rights violations. This paper provides a more consistent theoretical framework for considering he sociological factors that influence human rights and uses indicators that eliminate measurement confounds identified in previous research. We examine support for both both physical integrity rights and empowerment rights, finding somewhat different patterns of predictors of the two.

Data for the project are drawn from the University of Gothenburg’s Quality of Government Institute’s time series data set. This dataset combines numerous measures from recognized data sources with data for most of the world’s countries. Limitations on the availability of militarization data restrict analyses to the years from 1990 to 2010, but allow examination of relationships via pooled time series analysis. Specific conceptualizations of militarization (e.g., praetorian militarization) are expected to be adversely related to the availability of rights, even after controlling for several potentially confounding factors.

Authors

• Steven Carlton-Ford, University of Cincinnati

• Jeff Gaver, University of Cincinnati