Democracy and Human Rights: A Tortuous Relationship A Quantitative Analysis of Repression in Strong Democracies

Abstract

One of the most robust empirical observations in the human rights literature is that democratic regimes are associated with greater respect for personal integrity rights, such as freedom from torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and extrajudicial execution. However, even strong democracies sometimes engage in serious violations of personal integrity rights. In this study, I identified factors that contribute to repression in strong democracies. The core findings from my statistical analysis of 24 strong democracies from 1990 to 2007 are that involvement in war, internal dissident activity, poor economic performance, and larger non-native populations are associated with statistically significant increases in repression. Higher levels of international integration were associated with a slight improvement in the respect for personal integrity rights. Freedom of the press and economic development did not have statistically significant impacts.