Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Part I
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Why International Law? The Development of the International Human Rights Regime in the Twentieth Century
- 3 Theories of Commitment
- 4 Theories of Compliance
- Part II
- Appendix 1 Data Appendix
- Appendix 2 Regime Type and Rule of Law Categories
- References
- Index
4 - Theories of Compliance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Part I
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Why International Law? The Development of the International Human Rights Regime in the Twentieth Century
- 3 Theories of Commitment
- 4 Theories of Compliance
- Part II
- Appendix 1 Data Appendix
- Appendix 2 Regime Type and Rule of Law Categories
- References
- Index
Summary
I believe the decision by totalitarian states to formally (if not practically) recognize these shared values results in part from the international program of support for human rights movements around the world. These legal commitments serve both as the encouraging fruit of efforts to force observance of human rights and as a useful tool by which to transform totalitarian governments into more democratic ones.
Leonid Romanov, member of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and chairman of the parliament's Commission on Education, Culture, and ScienceHuman rights have been one of the most powerful normative concepts of the past half century. They have been championed by groups and individuals disgusted by the oppression of which some governments have shown themselves capable. They have been supported by governments genuinely eager to set a pro-rights example as well as by cynical governments for purposes of international posturing. Cynical ratification was theorized to be rational only under certain narrow conditions – for instance, when information is thin and autocratic leaders' time horizons are short. Much of the evidence presented in the previous chapter followed patterns consistent with these expectations. Democracies have tended to be at the forefront in the process of ratification, while nondemocratic regimes have fairly consistently lagged behind. There is also evidence of strategic ratification in the form of social camouflage, but really only during the Cold War years, where the news media were under the governments' tight control, and in regions with wider dispersions in actual rights practices.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Mobilizing for Human RightsInternational Law in Domestic Politics, pp. 112 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
- 2
- Cited by