Fixing the Past: The Effects of Human Rights Trials on Political Attitudes

• In Event: The Legacy of Authoritarian Repression

Abstract

Repression under dictatorship leaves a lasting mark on societies, even after transitions to democracy. Trials of officials responsible for political violence under the previous regime are expected to improve human rights norms and trust in institutions that are supposed to protect these rights. The effects of human rights trials are estimated in Argentina, a country ruled by military dictatorship from 1976-1983 that twenty-five years later, initiated sweeping human rights trials for past repression. Using observational opinion data around the guilty verdict for one of the dictatorship's top-ranking generals, we find the trial verdict increased public rejection of torture and political killings. Yet trust in courts generally declined. A follow-up survey experiment explores the mechanisms by which trials affect these public attitudes which are critical for democratic consolidation.

Authors

• Jennifer Gandhi, Emory University

• Don S Grasse

• Pearce Edwards, Carnegie Mellon University