Caught Red-Handed: Human Rights Violations in Established Democracies

It ranks among the few law-like propositions of political science that democracies are internally less violent than non-democracies. More specifically, democracy is said to prevent government encroachments on physical integrity rights, because it offers citizens numerous channels to signal political grievances, because it values peaceful conflict mediation, and because it provides control over heavy-handed politicians via political competition. Ultimately, more democracy equals less physical integrity violations. Nonetheless, we do observe even top-notch democracies violating human rights. In Spain the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL) operated under the protection of Spanish government officials. With the stated intent of combating ETA terrorism, GAL carried out a series of kidnappings and assassinations of suspected ETA supporters between 1983 and 1987. Amnesty International repeatedly red flagged South Africa, because local police forces often brutally abuse suspects. Finally, in early 2013 the US administration officially acknowledged killing four citizens in anti-terrorism operations. The consequences for democracy are grave. Many scholars argue that limited government and compliance with integrity of person rights are necessary conditions for democracy. Otherwise the free and fair participation of all citizens cannot be guaranteed. Human rights violations are not reconcilable with democratic government and contradict its normative foundation. Hence, consistent disrespect for physical integrity rights on the part of high performing democracies could signal a democratic regression. In order to probe this possibility, my paper goes beyond anecdotal evidence. Using multi-level regression I analyze physical integrity violations in thirty established democracies from 1990 to 2007. In line with the literature on state repression I argue that democracies are tempted to answer political threats with violent coercion. However, against this literature I hypothesize that violent coercion is conditional on the strength of the judiciary. Consequently, when established democracies violate human rights, we witness systematic institutional deficits and probably less a democratic regression.