Violence, Non-violence, and the Effects of International Human Rights Law

Yonatan Lupu is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University.  He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California-San Diego and his J.D. from Georgetown University.  primary research interests are political violence and international institutions.

Under what conditions are individuals more likely to approve of human rights abuses by their governments?  While many theoretical expectations have been offered about public approval of repression, many of these have not been directly tested.  We analyze the effects of differing opposition tactics, differing government tactics, and legal constraints on approval of repression through a series of survey experiments in India, Israel, and Argentina. Our results indicate that violent action by opposition groups consistently increases support for government repression.