Party positions over international human rights treaties in the United States in the Post-Cold War

Flávio Contrera,Matheus Lucas Hebling

doi:10.5752/p.2317-773x.2021v9n1p24-50

Abstract

This article aimed to verify the occurrence of convergence and congruence in the positions that the Democratic and Republican parties express about human rights treaties in the Electoral, in the Executive, and the Legislative arenas, in the Post-Cold War (1992-2016). The use of the comparative method guided the study of six specific cases, analyzed using qualitative techniques. The results point to two trends. The first is that the possibility of convergence between the Democratic and Republican parties tends to diminish when their positions on human rights treaties are anchored by ideological perspectives, and the second is that a party’s position on a treaty tends to be congruent among political arenas. Moreover, the divergence of positions between the parties clarifies the liberal internationalist character of the Democratic positions and the conservative isolationist approach of the Republican positions.

Highlights

Prospects for cooperation initiatives among countries have long been on the horizon of liberal theorists in international relations
The willingness of the United States to ratify such treaties seems less than the willingness of many of the countries that the Americans are pressing to adhere to more humanitarian practices
There is no guarantee that the accession of repressive states to human rights treaties will lead them to comply with the agreed provisions

Summary

Introduction

Prospects for cooperation initiatives among countries have long been on the horizon of liberal theorists in international relations These perspectives envisioned the possibility of cooperation through international organizations, which came to take effect only after World War II. Since the 1970s, liberals have envisioned cooperation through the construction of international regimes (KEOHANE; NYE, 1977; KRASNER, 1982) and later, through global governance structures (ROSENAU, 1992) This long period of theoretical development took place during the Cold War, when the conflict between the superpowers affected the prospects for international cooperation. The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the bipolar conflict combined with the intensification of the globalization process have ushered in a new era in which cooperation initiatives among countries have become more feasible In this context, the prospects for international cooperation have stimulated new enthusiasm for treaty-making as a way to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems (ELSIG et al, 2011)

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Conclusion