The external and internal influences on human rights in Latin America: A regional perspective

While the majority of human rights research, and, hence, conclusions about the causes of repression, has relied primarily on case studies or global samples, regional studies have largely been neglected. However, regional human rights analysis stands to make several contributions to human rights research by determining the following: (1) if influences found to be either significant or insignificant when applied to a global sample remain to be so when the sample is broken down, and (2) if important, yet uninvestigated, influences can be discovered by examining regional samples. Furthermore, while human rights researchers have identified domestic influences that contribute to a state's repression level, examinations of factors external to the state have remained largely unattended to. By utilizing a pooled, cross-sectional time series design with a lagged, endogenous variable and Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (Beck, Nathaniel and J. Katz. 1995. "What to Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data in Comparative Politics." American Political Science Review. 89: 634--47), this dissertation examines the role of various domestic and international influences in determining regional repression levels in Latin America from 1976--1992. The results of this, one of the first, cross-national, empirical, quantitative analysis of repression in Latin America, are surprising. Despite democracy's positive, influential role in human rights observance on a global sample, it demonstrates no such influence on human rights in Latin America. Also surprising are the results indicating that economic development makes little difference, nor does the influence of economic growth, multinational corporation penetration, dependency, population density or growth, international war involvement, or U.S. aid. The presence of economic sanctions, however, demonstrates the most significant impact of the independent variables, with this research thereby demonstrating quantitatively for the first time that sanctions denigrate a country's human rights observance. Furthermore, military government demonstrates a positive relationship to the achievement of human rights as does the influence of the Catholic Church, whereas civil war involvement and past repression demonstrate strong, negative relationships with human rights observance.