Improving Human Rights - by Michael Haas (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first comprehensive statistical analysis of human rights attainments and improvements over time, this book seeks to answer the question, Why do some countries better observe human rights than others, and what can be done to advance the cause of human rights around the world? Haas's data support his argument that economic sanctions against countries that violate human rights are likely to be counterproductive. When information flows more freely and economies are more pluralistic, competing political parties emerge, and basic human rights are increasingly respected. When liberal democracies have sufficient prosperity to adopt welfare state policies, women's rights are most likely to advance.

Book Synopsis

The first comprehensive statistical analysis of human rights attainments and improvements over time, this book seeks to answer the question, Why do some countries better observe human rights than others, and what can be done to advance the cause of human rights around the world? Haas's data support his argument that economic sanctions against countries that violate human rights are likely to be counterproductive. When information flows more freely and economies are more pluralistic, competing political parties emerge, and basic human rights are increasingly respected. When liberal democracies have sufficient prosperity to adopt welfare state policies, women's rights are most likely to advance.

About the Author

MICHAEL HAAS is Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Haas is the author of many books, and the following have been published by Praeger: The Pacific Way (1989), Korean Unification (1989), The Asian Way to Peace (1989), Cambodia, Pol Pot, and the United States (1991), Genocide by Proxy (1991), Polity and Society (1992), and Institutional Racism: The Case of Hawai'i (1992).