Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:18:45.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Origins of Human Rights Regimes: Democratic Delegation in Postwar Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2003

Andrew Moravcsik
Get access

Abstract

Most formal international human rights regimes establish international committees and courts that hold governments accountable to their own citizens for purely internal activities. Why would governments establish arrangements so invasive of domestic sovereignty? Two views dominate the literature. “Realist” theories assert that the most powerful democracies coerce or entice weaker countries to accept norms; “ideational” theories maintain that transnational processes of diffusion and persuasion socialize less-democratic governments to accept norms. Drawing on theories of rational delegation, I propose and test a third “republican liberal” view: Governments delegate self-interestedly to combat future threats to domestic democratic governance. Thus it is not mature and powerful democracies, but new and less-established democracies that will most strongly favor mandatory and enforceable human rights obligations. I test this proposition in the case of the European Convention on Human Rights—the most successful system of formal international human rights guarantees in the world today. The historical record of its founding—national positions, negotiating tactics, and confidential deliberations—confirms the republican liberal explanation. My claim that governments will sacrifice sovereignty to international regimes in order to dampen domestic political uncertainty and “lock in” more credible policies is then generalized theoretically and applied to other human rights regimes, coordination of conservative reaction, and international trade and monetary policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , Spring 2000 , pp. 217 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackerman, Bruce. 1997. The Rise of World Constitutionalism. Virginia Law Review 83 (4):771–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ando, Nisuke. 1992. The Future of Monitoring Bodies—Limitations and Possibilities of the Human Rights Committee. In 1991–1992 Canadian Human Rights Yearbook, 169–175. Toronto: Carswell.Google Scholar
Bailey, Michael A., Goldstein, Judith, and Weingast, Barry R.. 1997. The Institutional Roots of American Trade Policy: Politics, Coalitions, and International Trade. World Politics 49 (3):309–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bass, Gary. 1998. Judging War: The Politics of International War Crimes Tribunals. Ph.D. diss., Harvard University.Google Scholar
Brett, Rachel. 1996. Human Rights and the OSCE. Human Rights Quarterly 18 (3):668–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brysk, Alison. 1994. The Politics of Human Rights in Argentina: Protest, Change, and Democratization. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Carr, E. H. 1946. The Twenty Years'Crisis 1919–1939. 2d ed. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, Barry E., and Trimble, Phillip R.. 1995. International Law. 2d ed. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Collins, Susan M. 1988. Inflation and the EMS. In The European Monetary System, edited by Giavazzi, Francesco, Micossi, Stefano, and Miller, Marcus, 112–39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costello, Declan. 1992. Limiting Rights Constitutionally. In Human Rights and Constitutional Law: Essays in Honour of Brian Walsh, edited by O'Reilly, J., 177–87. Dublin: Round Hall Press.Google Scholar
Council of Europe. 1975. Recueil des Travaux Préparatoires. 6 vols. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.Google Scholar
David, Stephen R. 1991. Explaining Third-World Alignment. World Politics 43 (2):233–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dijk, Pieter van, and van Hoof, G. J. H.. 1998. Theory and Practice of the European Convention on Human Rights. 3d ed. Hague: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, Jack. 1986. International Human Rights: A Regime Analysis. International Organization 40 (3):599–642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, Michael W. 1986. Liberalism and World Politics. American Political Science Review 80 (4): 1151–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drzemczewski, Andrew Z. 1983. The European Human Rights Convention in Domestic Law: A Comparative Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
European Court of Justice. 1996. Opinion Pursuant to Article 228 of the Treaty. Opinion 2/94 (29 March): I/1763–I/1790.Google Scholar
Evans, Peter B., Jacobson, Harold K., and Putnam, Robert D.. 1993. Double-Edged Diplomacy: International Bargaining and Domestic Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falk, Richard A. 1981. Human Rights and State Sovereignty. New York: Holmes and Meier.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha. 1996. National Interests in International Society. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnemore, Martha, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. International Norm Dynamics and Political Change. International Organization 52 (4):887–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franck, Thomas M. 1988. Legitimacy in the International System. American Journal of International Law 82 (4):705–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frieden, Jeffry A. 1993. Making Commitments: France and Italy in the European Monetary System, 1979–1985. Working Paper Series 1.14. Berkeley, Calif.: Center for German and European Studies.Google Scholar
Glendon, Mary Ann. 1998a. Knowing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Notre Dame Law Review 73 (5): 1153–90.Google Scholar
Glendon, Mary Ann. 1998b. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Judith. 1996. International Law and Domestic Institutions: Reconciling North American “Unfair” Trade Laws. International Organization 50:541–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, Stephan. 1997. The Political Economy of Regionalism in Asia and the Americas. In The Political Economy of Regionalism, edited by Mansfield, Edward and Milner, Helen, 20–49. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Helfer, Lawrence, and Slaughter, Anne-Marie. 1997. Toward a Theory of Effective Supranational Adjudication. Yale Law Journal 107 (2):273–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henkin, Louis, Neuman, Gerald L., Orentlicher, Diane F., and Leebron, David W.. 1999. Human Rights. New York: Foundation Press.Google Scholar
Humphrey, John P. 1974. The Revolution in the International Law of Human Rights. Human Rights 4:205–16.Google Scholar
Humphrey, John P. 1984. Human Rights and the United Nations: A Great Adventure. Dobbs Ferry: Transnational Publishers.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1991. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Janis, Mark W., Kay, Richard S., and Bradley, Anthony W.. 1995. European Human Rights Law: Text and Materials. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Jepperson, Ronald L., Wendt, Alexander, and Katzenstein, Peter J.. 1996. Norms, Identity, and the Culture of National Security. In The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, edited by Katzenstein, Peter J., 33–75. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Chaim D., and Pape, Robert A.. 1999. Explaining Costly International Moral Action: Britain's Sixty-Year Campaign Against the Atlantic Slave Trade. International Organization 53 (4):631–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keck, Margaret E., and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. 1986. Theory of World Politics: Structural Realism and Beyond. In Neo-Realism and Its Critics, edited by Keohane, Robert O., 158–203. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1992. Sovereignty and Intervention. Unpublished manuscript, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1995. Compromising Westphalia. International Security 20 (3): 115–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krugman, Paul R. 1994. Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Kupchan, Charles A., and Kupchan, Clifford A.. 1991. Concerts, Collective Security, and the Future of Europe. International Security 16 (1):114–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, David A. 1993. Leadership, Hegemony, and the International Economy: Naked Emperor or Tattered Monarch with Potential? International Studies Quarterly 37 (4):459–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landes, William M., and Posner, Richard A.. 1975. The Independent Judiciary in an Interest-Group Perspective. Journal of Law and Economics 18 (3):875–901.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legro, Jeffrey W. 1996. Culture and Preferences in the International Cooperation Two-Step. American Political Science Review 90 (1): 118–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legro, Jeffrey W., and Moravcsik, Andrew. 1999. Is Anybody Still a Realist? International Security 24 (2):5–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lester, Anthony. 1984. Fundamental Rights: The United Kingdom Isolated? In 1984 Public Law, edited by Zellick, Graham, 46–72. London: Stevens and Sons.Google Scholar
Lester, Anthony. 1994. Taking Human Rights Seriously. King's College Law Journal 5:1–15.Google Scholar
Manas, Jean E. 1996. The Council of Europe's Democracy Ideal and the Challenge of Ethno-National Strife. In Preventing Conflict in the Post-Communist World: Mobilizing International and Regional Organizations, edited by Chayes, Abram and Chayes, Antonia Handler, 99–144. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Marston, Geoffrey. 1993. The United Kingdom's Part in the Preparation of the European Convention on Human Rights, 1950. International and Comparative Law Quarterly 42 (4):796–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKeon, Richard. 1949. The Philosophic Bases and Material Circumstances of the Rights of Man. In Human Rights: Comments and Interpretations, edited by UNESCO, 35–46. New York: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Merrills, J. G. 1993. The Development of International Law by the European Court of Human Rights. 2d ed. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry. 1990. Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 6 (1):213–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1992. Liberalism and International Relations Theory. Center for International Affairs Working Paper Series 92–6. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1994. Why the European Community Strengthens the State: International Cooperation and Domestic Politics. Center for European Studies Working Paper Series No. 52. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1995. Explaining International Human Rights Regimes: Liberal Theory and Western Europe. European Journal of International Relations 1:157–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1997. Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics. International Organization 51 (4): 513–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1998a. The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1998b. The Origin of Human Rights Regimes: Liberal States and Domestic Uncertainty in Postwar Europe. Working Paper No. 98/17. Cambridge, Mass.: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Morsink, Johannes. 1999. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgenthau, Hans J. 1960. Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. 3d ed. New York: Alfred Knopf.Google Scholar
Nye, Joseph S. Jr, 1990. Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Pasquino, Pasquale. 1998. Constitutional Adjudication and Democracy: Comparative Perspectives—USA, France, Italy. Ratio Juris 11:38–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 1996. The Path to European Union: A Historical Institutionalist Analysis. Comparative Political Studies 29 (2): 123–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polakiewicz, Jörg, and Jacob-Foltzer, Valérie. 1991. The European Human Rights Convention in Domestic Law: The Impact of Strasbourg Case Law in States Where Direct Effect Is Given to the Convention. Human Rights Law Quarterly 12:65–85, 125–142.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 1988. Diplomacy and Domestic Politics. International Organization 42 (3): 427–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramirez, Francisco O., Soysal, Yasemin, and Shanahan, Suzanne. 1997. The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890–1990. American Sociological Review 62 (5):735–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse, Thomas. 2000. Let's Argue! Communicative Action and International Relations. International Organization 54 (1):1–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse-Kappen, Thomas. 1994. Ideas Do Not Float Freely: Transnational Coalitions, Domestic Structures, and the End of the Cold War. International Organization 48 (2): 185–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse-Kappen, Thomas. 1996. Collective Identity in a Democratic Community: The Case of NATO. In The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, edited by Katzenstein, Peter J., 357–99. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Robertson, A. H., and Merrills, J. G.. 1993. Human Rights in Europe: A Study of the European Convention on Human Rights. 3d ed. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Robertson, A. H., and Merrills, J. G.. 1996. Human Rights in the World: An Introduction to the International Protection of Human Rights. 4th ed. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Rodrik, Dani. 1989. Credibility of Trade Reform: A Policy Maker's Guide. World Economy 12 (1):1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John Gerard. 1983. Human Rights and the Future International Community. Daedalus 112 (4):93–110.Google Scholar
Russett, Bruce. 1993. Grasping the Democratic Peace: Principles for a Post–Cold War World. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Samnøy, Åshild. 1993. Human Rights as International Consensus: The Making of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1945–1948. Bergen: Michelsen Institute.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Martin. 1981. Courts: A Comparative and Political Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sieghart, Paul. 1983. The International Law of Human Rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sikkink, Kathryn. 1993. The Power of Principled Ideas: Human Rights Policies in the United States and Western Europe. In Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, edited by Goldstein, Judith and Keohane, Robert O., 139–70. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, A. W. Brian. 1998. Short History of the European Convention on Human Rights. Unpublished manuscript, University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Slaughter, Anne-Marie, Sweet, Alec Stone, and Weiler, Joseph H. H., eds. 1998. The European Court and National Courts: Doctrine and Jurisprudence. Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Snyder, Jack. 1991. Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Teitgen, Pierre-Henri. 1988. Faites entrer le tèmoin suivant 1940–1958: de la résistance à la Ve République. Rennes, France: Ouest-France.Google Scholar
Van Evera, Stephen. 1990. Primed for Peace. International Security 15 (winter):7–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Evera, Stephen. 1999. The Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth N. 1979. Theory of International Politics. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Wippman, David. 1999. Practical and Legal Constraints on Internal Power Sharing. In International Relations and Ethnic Conflict, edited by Wippman, David, 170–88. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Whitfield, John H. 1988. How the Working Organs of the European Convention Have Elevated the Individual to the Level of Subject of International Law. ILSA Journal of International Law 12:27–53.Google Scholar