Structural equivalence and its effects on compliance: A network analysis of compliance within human rights treaties

Why do some states choose to follow through on their commitments to international human rights treaties while other states do not follow through? Structural equivalence is a social network measure which captures the similarity two actors have in their connections to other actors or to organizations. I use structural equivalence to help gain an understanding of what influences a state's decision to obey an international human rights treaty. I argue that as states become more tied to human rights treaty members through outside international institutions, economic trading, and alliances, the human rights treaty member states will be more likely to comply. Using a multinomial logit, I find that similar IGO membership has a questionable effect on compliance while similar alliance ties and heavy export dependence has a positive effect on compliance.