Suchergebnisse

Why do some democracies better protect human rights than other democracies? Although research shows that democracies engage in fewer human rights abuses than nondemocracies, we know less about what explains the variation in respect for rights among democracies. Using Access Point Theory, we argue that the number of points of access for interest groups in democracies leads to better protection of physical integrity rights but has weaker or no effects on worker rights. By increasing the amount of access provided to interest groups, lobbying becomes cheaper which enables human rights organizations to lobby for better rights protection but, on worker rights, also enables businesses to lobby against those protections. We examine these expectations using data on all democracies from 1980 to 2002, as well as a new latent measure of worker rights constructed using item response theory.

Handelsliberalisierung kennt nicht nur ökonomische Gewinner. Um die öffentliche Unterstützung für ihre liberale Außenhandelspolitik nicht zu verlieren, versuchen manche Regierungen diejenigen, die dadurch Nachteile erfahren, sozial abzusichern. Diese Hypothese von einer "Sozialen Freihandelspolitik" können die Autoren empirisch bekräftigen. (kss-swp)