Does Being Bound Together Suffocate, or Liberate?

The research finds a strong positive association between overall globalization and its three components—economic, social, and political—and the respect for basic human rights, contradicting 'race to the bottom' theories.

• There is a statistically significant positive relationship between overall globalization and government respect for physical integrity rights. For every 1 unit increase in globalization, there is a 0.01 increase in human rights scores.
• Economic globalization has a direct positive effect on the respect for human rights, a result that remains significant even when controlling for income and income growth rates.
• Social globalization, which includes personal contacts and information flows, is positively associated with human rights respect, suggesting that increased social connectivity may deter states from harming individuals.
• Political globalization, characterized by closer ties between governments and participation in international organizations, correlates positively with increased respect for human rights.
• The positive relationship between globalization and human rights is robust across different samples, including a specific analysis of 93 developing countries, and holds when using alternative estimation methods like ordered probit and 2SLS IV.
• When controlling for endogeneity using the 2SLS IV method, the positive effect of globalization on human rights is amplified; a standard deviation increase in the globalization index increases the PIR score by roughly 0.95, compared to 0.26 in the POLS method.
• Democracy is consistently and positively associated with the respect for physical integrity rights across all models.
• Certain factors are associated with higher human rights violations, including larger country size, oil export dependency (the 'resource curse'), and the presence of civil war.
• The study finds that the positive effect of market integration on human rights may explain some of the effects typically attributed to per capita income alone.

APA

de Soysa, I., & Vadlamannati, K. C. (n.d.). Does Being Bound Together Suffocate, or Liberate? Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/2dbb3c16-fa42-413b-8b88-a287586b9656/Does_Being_Bound_Together_Suffocate_or_Liberate_Th-2-41.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

de Soysa, Indra, and Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati. Does Being Bound Together Suffocate, or Liberate? Peace Research Institute Oslo, n.d. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/2dbb3c16-fa42-413b-8b88-a287586b9656/Does_Being_Bound_Together_Suffocate_or_Liberate_Th-2-41.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=de Soysa |first1=Indra |last2=Vadlamannati |first2=Krishna Chaitanya |title=Does Being Bound Together Suffocate, or Liberate? |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/2dbb3c16-fa42-413b-8b88-a287586b9656/Does_Being_Bound_Together_Suffocate_or_Liberate_Th-2-41.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{desoysanddoes, author = {de Soysa, Indra and Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya}, title = {{Does Being Bound Together Suffocate, or Liberate?}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/2dbb3c16-fa42-413b-8b88-a287586b9656/Does_Being_Bound_Together_Suffocate_or_Liberate_Th-2-41.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }