Alison Brysk | University of California, Santa Barbara (original) (raw)

Papers by Alison Brysk

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: contesting human rights – pathways of change

Research paper thumbnail of Book Review: International Relations: Human Rights in International Relations

Political Studies Review, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Women’s Rights in the Philippines in an Era of Authoritarianism

Research paper thumbnail of The quest for constructive criticism

Research paper thumbnail of The future of human rights: A research agenda

Journal of Human Rights, Mar 15, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Does Global Good Citizenship Begin at Home? Sexual Equality and Humanitarian Foreign Policy

Social Science Research Network, Jun 25, 2013

Does greater sexual equality at home strengthen a state’s propensity to global good citizenship? ... more Does greater sexual equality at home strengthen a state’s propensity to global good citizenship? Constructivist approaches to international relations suggest that deeper democracies may be more prone to support international human rights initiatives, going beyond the liberal democratic peace to a deep democratic human security promotion. Feminist perspectives highlight sexual equality as an important generator of deeper democracy. In theory, greater sexual equality may have multiple effects on foreign policymaking that should enhance cosmopolitan universalism. First, the direct empowerment of women as policymakers and civil society constituencies should shift states’ incentives for international initiatives. Greater sexual equality should also lead to diffuse socialization to peace, an ethic of care, and the promotion of equity. Finally, domestic sexual equality should have greater traction on state promotion of international human rights in democratic countries. We test these predictions using cross-country data on a wide variety of international human rights outcomes. We employ several multi-dimensional indices of gender equity that incorporate women’s political participation, legal, economic and social status, and gendered experience of insecurity. Controlling for factors linked to human rights foreign policy by previous research, we find that more equitable countries are more likely to support international commitments constraining state violence against individuals. States with more empowered women also provide more and higher quality development assistance. Moreover, sexual equality raises countries’ support for international measures to combat discrimination against women and on the basis of sexual orientation. As expected, sexual equality is more supportive of human rights foreign policy in democratic countries. Sexual equality appears to yield less benefit for participation in costly “high politics:” international legal institutions, promotion of economic rights through concessionary trade policies, or adoption of diplomatic sanctions against pariah states, unless it is bolstered by democratic institutions. These trends also appear in samples that exclude Western democracies.

Research paper thumbnail of From Rhetoric to Rights: Global Response to Human Trafficking

Research paper thumbnail of Speaking Feminism to Rights: Intersections of Ethos and Praxis

Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of The Politics of Human Rights in Argentina: Protest, Change and Democratization

Political Science Quarterly, 1995

... Identifiez vous; Panier; Accueil; Notice. Imprimer la notice. The politics of human rights in... more ... Identifiez vous; Panier; Accueil; Notice. Imprimer la notice. The politics of human rights in argentina protest, change and democratization. Auteur : BRYSK ALISON. Prix indicatif 78,97 €. Disponible chez l'éditeur (délai d'approvisionnement : 12 jours). ...

Research paper thumbnail of Making rights rhetoric work: constructing care in a post-liberal world

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 20, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of When Development Is Not Enough: Inequality, Structural Change, and Violence Against Women

Social Science Research Network, 2015

ABSTRACT In most countries in most years, peacetime violence against women kills and maims more p... more ABSTRACT In most countries in most years, peacetime violence against women kills and maims more people than war. Since development reduces many forms of conflict, the persistence of gender violence worldwide, and especially in modernizing middle- income countries, is a puzzle. We therefore ask whether violence against women reflects unequal development and structural changes that generate gendered insecurity, in a manner outlined by feminist theorists. We hypothesize that gender- based violence will follow the patterns of other forms of social conflict-such as crime and political terror-linked to inequality, urban crowding, and poor governance. The Physical Security of Women Index from the WomanStats Database allows the first comprehensive cross-national test of the relationship between these variables and gendered insecurity. The PSOW captures the incidence, reporting barriers, and state response to rape, femicide, and domestic violence. We show that high levels of political terror are always accompanied by high physical insecurity of women. Then, using ordered logit regression on cross-sectional ordinal data, we examine the association between income inequality, urban crowding, corruption, and the physical insecurity of women, alongside modernization factors such as national income, religion, and female labor force participation. We find that cross-national variation in the physical insecurity of women is associated with inequality, dense urban growth, corruption, and political terror—but not religion—and that the effects of national income are highly conditioned by income inequality. Moreover, these effects operate differently at different levels of development, with stronger associations with inequality at higher levels of income, and diminishing returns to female labor force participation. Our study suggests that policy makers promoting economic and cultural modernization of gender roles should consider targeted policies to ameliorate inequality and improve governance and urban policy to protect women from increased risk of violence during development processes.

Research paper thumbnail of Does Global Good Citizenship Begin at Home? Domestic Gender Equity and Humanitarian Foreign Policy

Social Science Research Network, 2012

Does the empowerment of women strengthen a state's propensity to global good citizenship? Constru... more Does the empowerment of women strengthen a state's propensity to global good citizenship? Constructivist approaches to international relations suggest that deep democracies may be more prone to support international human rights initiatives. Feminist perspectives highlight gender equity as a generator of deeper democracy, an ethic of care, and a socialization to equity that should enhance cosmopolitan universalism in foreign policy. We test this prediction using crosscountry data on a wide variety of international human rights outcomes. Controlling for the factors previous research has linked to human rights foreign policy-such as regime type-more gender equitable countries are more likely to support international commitments against state violence against individuals and child-abuse. States with more empowered women also provide more and higher quality development assistance. Moreover, a higher level of gender empowerment raises countries' support for international anti-discrimination measures on both gender and sexual orientation.

Research paper thumbnail of Contesting Violence Against Women: Constructing Human Rights at the Frontiers of Globalization

Research paper thumbnail of La Acción Comunicativa y Los Derechos Humanos en Colombia

Para el siglo XXI, en la mayoría de Latinoamérica, una combinación de presión internacional y de ... more Para el siglo XXI, en la mayoría de Latinoamérica, una combinación de presión internacional y de la sociedad civil ha producido una reforma notable, si bien incompleta, por los derechos humanos. Sin embargo, en Colombia, asesinatos continuos, secuestros, desplazamiento forzado y tortura han recibido atención internacional limitada, y han tenido una respuesta Estatal mesclada. Éste ensayo argumentará que la estructura simbólica de las violaciones, y el ambiente político en Colombia, más allá de limitaciones institucionales o materiales, disminuyen el impacto de la sociedad civil y la respuesta del Estado. La acción comunicativa y sus carencias son la clave a la persistencia del abuso y la demora en la respuesta internacional en Colombia. Específicamente, rastrearemos problemas en la definición de derechos, identificación de victimas, reclamos de legitimidad del Estado, discurso de atribución causal, y las dinámicas de la comunicación transnacional.

Research paper thumbnail of Human Rights and Private Wrongs

Routledge eBooks, Apr 15, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of LA ACCIÓN COMUNICATIVA Y LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN COLOMBIA: Cuando las palabras fallan

Research paper thumbnail of The politics of moral panics: Norms and national insecurity

Research paper thumbnail of The Future of Human Rights

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: populism and the politics of human rights

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 16, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Femicide and the Global Political Economy

Routledge eBooks, Apr 20, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: contesting human rights – pathways of change

Research paper thumbnail of Book Review: International Relations: Human Rights in International Relations

Political Studies Review, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Women’s Rights in the Philippines in an Era of Authoritarianism

Research paper thumbnail of The quest for constructive criticism

Research paper thumbnail of The future of human rights: A research agenda

Journal of Human Rights, Mar 15, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Does Global Good Citizenship Begin at Home? Sexual Equality and Humanitarian Foreign Policy

Social Science Research Network, Jun 25, 2013

Does greater sexual equality at home strengthen a state’s propensity to global good citizenship? ... more Does greater sexual equality at home strengthen a state’s propensity to global good citizenship? Constructivist approaches to international relations suggest that deeper democracies may be more prone to support international human rights initiatives, going beyond the liberal democratic peace to a deep democratic human security promotion. Feminist perspectives highlight sexual equality as an important generator of deeper democracy. In theory, greater sexual equality may have multiple effects on foreign policymaking that should enhance cosmopolitan universalism. First, the direct empowerment of women as policymakers and civil society constituencies should shift states’ incentives for international initiatives. Greater sexual equality should also lead to diffuse socialization to peace, an ethic of care, and the promotion of equity. Finally, domestic sexual equality should have greater traction on state promotion of international human rights in democratic countries. We test these predictions using cross-country data on a wide variety of international human rights outcomes. We employ several multi-dimensional indices of gender equity that incorporate women’s political participation, legal, economic and social status, and gendered experience of insecurity. Controlling for factors linked to human rights foreign policy by previous research, we find that more equitable countries are more likely to support international commitments constraining state violence against individuals. States with more empowered women also provide more and higher quality development assistance. Moreover, sexual equality raises countries’ support for international measures to combat discrimination against women and on the basis of sexual orientation. As expected, sexual equality is more supportive of human rights foreign policy in democratic countries. Sexual equality appears to yield less benefit for participation in costly “high politics:” international legal institutions, promotion of economic rights through concessionary trade policies, or adoption of diplomatic sanctions against pariah states, unless it is bolstered by democratic institutions. These trends also appear in samples that exclude Western democracies.

Research paper thumbnail of From Rhetoric to Rights: Global Response to Human Trafficking

Research paper thumbnail of Speaking Feminism to Rights: Intersections of Ethos and Praxis

Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of The Politics of Human Rights in Argentina: Protest, Change and Democratization

Political Science Quarterly, 1995

... Identifiez vous; Panier; Accueil; Notice. Imprimer la notice. The politics of human rights in... more ... Identifiez vous; Panier; Accueil; Notice. Imprimer la notice. The politics of human rights in argentina protest, change and democratization. Auteur : BRYSK ALISON. Prix indicatif 78,97 €. Disponible chez l'éditeur (délai d'approvisionnement : 12 jours). ...

Research paper thumbnail of Making rights rhetoric work: constructing care in a post-liberal world

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 20, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of When Development Is Not Enough: Inequality, Structural Change, and Violence Against Women

Social Science Research Network, 2015

ABSTRACT In most countries in most years, peacetime violence against women kills and maims more p... more ABSTRACT In most countries in most years, peacetime violence against women kills and maims more people than war. Since development reduces many forms of conflict, the persistence of gender violence worldwide, and especially in modernizing middle- income countries, is a puzzle. We therefore ask whether violence against women reflects unequal development and structural changes that generate gendered insecurity, in a manner outlined by feminist theorists. We hypothesize that gender- based violence will follow the patterns of other forms of social conflict-such as crime and political terror-linked to inequality, urban crowding, and poor governance. The Physical Security of Women Index from the WomanStats Database allows the first comprehensive cross-national test of the relationship between these variables and gendered insecurity. The PSOW captures the incidence, reporting barriers, and state response to rape, femicide, and domestic violence. We show that high levels of political terror are always accompanied by high physical insecurity of women. Then, using ordered logit regression on cross-sectional ordinal data, we examine the association between income inequality, urban crowding, corruption, and the physical insecurity of women, alongside modernization factors such as national income, religion, and female labor force participation. We find that cross-national variation in the physical insecurity of women is associated with inequality, dense urban growth, corruption, and political terror—but not religion—and that the effects of national income are highly conditioned by income inequality. Moreover, these effects operate differently at different levels of development, with stronger associations with inequality at higher levels of income, and diminishing returns to female labor force participation. Our study suggests that policy makers promoting economic and cultural modernization of gender roles should consider targeted policies to ameliorate inequality and improve governance and urban policy to protect women from increased risk of violence during development processes.

Research paper thumbnail of Does Global Good Citizenship Begin at Home? Domestic Gender Equity and Humanitarian Foreign Policy

Social Science Research Network, 2012

Does the empowerment of women strengthen a state's propensity to global good citizenship? Constru... more Does the empowerment of women strengthen a state's propensity to global good citizenship? Constructivist approaches to international relations suggest that deep democracies may be more prone to support international human rights initiatives. Feminist perspectives highlight gender equity as a generator of deeper democracy, an ethic of care, and a socialization to equity that should enhance cosmopolitan universalism in foreign policy. We test this prediction using crosscountry data on a wide variety of international human rights outcomes. Controlling for the factors previous research has linked to human rights foreign policy-such as regime type-more gender equitable countries are more likely to support international commitments against state violence against individuals and child-abuse. States with more empowered women also provide more and higher quality development assistance. Moreover, a higher level of gender empowerment raises countries' support for international anti-discrimination measures on both gender and sexual orientation.

Research paper thumbnail of Contesting Violence Against Women: Constructing Human Rights at the Frontiers of Globalization

Research paper thumbnail of La Acción Comunicativa y Los Derechos Humanos en Colombia

Para el siglo XXI, en la mayoría de Latinoamérica, una combinación de presión internacional y de ... more Para el siglo XXI, en la mayoría de Latinoamérica, una combinación de presión internacional y de la sociedad civil ha producido una reforma notable, si bien incompleta, por los derechos humanos. Sin embargo, en Colombia, asesinatos continuos, secuestros, desplazamiento forzado y tortura han recibido atención internacional limitada, y han tenido una respuesta Estatal mesclada. Éste ensayo argumentará que la estructura simbólica de las violaciones, y el ambiente político en Colombia, más allá de limitaciones institucionales o materiales, disminuyen el impacto de la sociedad civil y la respuesta del Estado. La acción comunicativa y sus carencias son la clave a la persistencia del abuso y la demora en la respuesta internacional en Colombia. Específicamente, rastrearemos problemas en la definición de derechos, identificación de victimas, reclamos de legitimidad del Estado, discurso de atribución causal, y las dinámicas de la comunicación transnacional.

Research paper thumbnail of Human Rights and Private Wrongs

Routledge eBooks, Apr 15, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of LA ACCIÓN COMUNICATIVA Y LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN COLOMBIA: Cuando las palabras fallan

Research paper thumbnail of The politics of moral panics: Norms and national insecurity

Research paper thumbnail of The Future of Human Rights

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: populism and the politics of human rights

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 16, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Femicide and the Global Political Economy

Routledge eBooks, Apr 20, 2023