Does Shaming Lead to the Adoption of Human Rights Institutions?

• In Event: Human Rights in a Context of War

Abstract

What are the effects of international shaming on domestic institutionalization? Whereas most scholars study the effects of shaming on eventual human rights respect, models of international shame predict states institutionalize rights before changes in behavior become reality. I take a step back and study the effect of shaming on institutional adoption. Viewing shaming as a process that seeks to change behavior by isolating and embarrassing the target leads to a somewhat counter-intuitive prediction -- although increasing pressure on states raises the probability of institutional adoption, too much shame can lower that probability. The argument follows from the social psychology literature on social exclusion that shows isolated individuals retreat from efforts to act normatively rather than increasing their effort in an attempt to be included. I test the hypothesis by observing state adoption of international and domestic human rights institutions -- specifically human rights treaties and national human rights institutions (NHRIs). Using data on Treaty and NHRI adoption patterns and a new latent variable for shaming, I find support for the argument that shaming increases institutional adoption up to a point in which it begins to decrease the probability of adoption.

Author

• Ryan M Welch, University of Tampa