Respect for Human Rights after the End of the Cold War
| Published date | 01 September 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343399036005002 |
| Author | David L. Cingranelli,David L. Richards |
| Date | 01 September 1999 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Respect for Human Rights after the End
of the Cold War*
DAVID L. CINGRANELLI & DAVID L. RICHARDS
Department of Political Science, Binghamton University
journal of
peace
R
ESEARCH
© 1999 Journal of Peace Research
vol. 36, no. 5, 1999, pp. 511–534
Sage Publications (London, Thousand
Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
[0022-3433 (199909) 36:5; 511–534; 009099]
By directly affecting democratization, globalization, domestic conflict, and interstate conflict, the end
of the Cold War was hypothesized to exert an indirect effect on the propensity of governments to
respect the human rights of their citizens. The findings for a sample of 79 countries showed that
torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings continued at about the same rate even after the Cold
War ended. However, after the end of the Cold War, there was significant improvement in government
respect for the right against political imprisonment. Contrary to expectations, it was found that gov-
ernments that decreased their involvement in interstate conflict or experienced decreased domestic con-
flict did not tend to increase respect for the right against political imprisonment. As hypothesized, it
was found that governments that became more democratic or increased their participation in the global
economy after the end of the Cold War tended to manifest higher levels of respect for the right of their
citizens not to be politically imprisoned. However, a closer look at several recent examples of democ-
ratization in Africa suggests that any human rights improvements resulting from post-Cold War
democratization may be short-lived. In the cases examined, improved government respect for the right
against political imprisonment resulted from short-term manipulations by the leaders of ‘illiberal’ or
‘demonstration’ democracies who were not committed to democratization or to the advancement of the
human rights of their citizens.
Introduction
The literature of the Cold War period
implied that the struggle between the
Superpowers caused more frequent and
more serious violations of human rights
by other governments around the
world – especially the governments of less
developed countries. According to many
scholars in the West, the Cold War caused
greater violations of human rights by hin-
dering the spread of democracy and pre-
venting the globalization of the world capi-
talist system. However, the Cold War also
may have reduced violations of human rights
by containing domestic conflict, especially
within communist countries, and by
reducing interstate conflict, especially
among smaller states. Governments that
experience less domestic and interstate con-
flict tend to violate the human rights of their
citizens less than other governments do.
By implication, the end of the Cold War
should have changed the propensity of gov-
ernments around the world to respect
human rights. The amount of the change in
a particular government’s willingness to
respect the human rights of its citizens
* We thank the following for their helpful
comments and suggestions: James McCormick, Patrick
Regan, and the Editor and reviewers of JPR. The
data used in this article can be obtained from:
http://www.polsci.binghamton.edu/hr.htm.
511
at SAGE Publications on December 7, 2012jpr.sagepub.comDownloaded from
would depend upon the directions and rela-
tive magnitudes of the changes in democra-
tization, interstate conflict, and domestic
conflict it experienced in the post-Cold War
period. The consequence of globalization for
human rights is less certain. Without ques-
tion, the triumph by the West has led to a
stronger and more inclusive capitalist world
economy. Scholars continue to disagree,
however, about whether greater partici-
pation in the world capitalist economy
pushes a government towards greater or less
respect for its citizens’ human rights.
Figure 1 presents a diagram of the four
types of indirect effects the end of the Cold
War might have exerted on government
respect for physical integrity rights around
the world according to these perspectives.
This research project examines these four
hypothesized indirect effects of the end of
the Cold War on government respect for
one category of human rights, physical
integrity rights. Physical integrity rights
include extrajudicial killings, torture, disap-
pearances, and political imprisonment. We
refer to a causal path having two positive
signs as a ‘positive effect’ thesis, since the
total causal effect of the end of the Cold War
would be to improve government respect for
physical integrity rights. For example, the
top path in Figure 1 shows that, according to
the democratic perspective, we would expect
democracy to have increased as a direct effect
of the end of the Cold War. As a result of
that direct positive effect we would then
expect an increase in respect for human
rights; hence, the indirect positive effect of
the end of the Cold War. We refer to a
causal path having a positive and negative
sign as a ‘negative effect’ thesis, since the
total causal effect would be to decrease
respect for human rights.
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 36 / number 5 / september 1999512
Figure 1. Illustration of Hypothesized Indirect Cold War Effects on Human Rights
at SAGE Publications on December 7, 2012jpr.sagepub.comDownloaded from
To continue reading
Request your trial