Human rights in the post-communist world: the roles of national identity, economic development and ethnic conflict

Abstract

What are the most important causes of variation in human rights practices in the post-communist world? It is hypothesised that political institutions, cultures and national identities, economic development, and ethnic conflict should have significant impacts. These hypotheses are tested statistically for the 28 post-communist countries, at three different time intervals following the collapse of the old regimes. Economic development has a relatively weak positive influence, and war a relatively strong negative influence. Culture defined in terms of ‘frustrated’ national identities has by far the strongest and most consistent impact. Cultures and national identities are here not analysed for their intrinsic value-content and traditional institutions. Rather, they are distinguished in terms of their forward-looking tactical compatibility, in a specific historical context, with stronger human rights practices. This way of interpreting the influence of culture may be a promising addition to existing approaches to explaining human rights practices in other regions of the world, for example, in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.