Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Individual in the Global Economy: International Organization and the Politics of Fair Trade

各国创建和加入多边贸易组织的速度比历史上任何时候都要快。随着这些机构的数量和范围不断扩大，世界各地反对全球化的大规模抗议活动对通过管理贸易进行全球治理的合法性提出了挑战。指控很明确：贸易组织的影响大于各州之间的市场准入。它们还会导致国家丧失保护个人免受全球市场力量影响的能力或意愿。尽管对国际组织对国与国关系的总体影响进行了大量研究，但对其对国与个人关系的影响的系统研究实际上是缺乏的。在这个博士论文研究支持项目中，学生参与了这场辩论，国家对贸易的承诺是否以及如何影响个人在全球经济中的生活。有人提出，人权是探讨这种紧张关系的一个特别重要的案例研究。使用制度方法来研究国际政治经济学，学生挑战了许多经济学家，政治学家，活动家和政策制定者现存的信念，即国家对贸易组织的承诺本质上是对人权的“好”或“坏”。相反，它假设国家在不同组织之间的选择，在设计和成员方面，将构成经济全球化对个人人权的影响。因此，人权和自由贸易可能是相容的目标，这取决于国际和国内机构的结构；然而，它们绝不是不可避免的。本研究采用定量和定性方法，从20世纪70年代中期到现在，在150多个州的样本中探讨了这一命题。

States create and join multilateral trade organizations at a faster pace then ever before in history. As these institutions grow in number and scope, mass protests against globalization around the world challenge the legitimacy of global governance through managed trade. The charge is clear: trade organizations impact more than market access among states. They also contribute to the demise of state capacity or willingness to protect individuals from global market forces. Despite a wealth of research into the general impact of international organizations on state-state relations, there is a virtual absence of systematic research into their impact on state- individual relations. In this Doctoral Dissertation Research Support project the student engages this debate whether and how states' commitments to trade impact the lives of individuals in a global economy. The argument is offered that human rights are a particularly important case study to explore this tension. Using an institutional approach to the study of international political economy, the student challenges extant belief among many economists, political scientists, activists, and policy- makers that state commitment to trade organizations is inherently 'good' or 'bad' for human rights. Rather, it is hypothesized that state choice between different organizations, in terms of design and membership, will structure the impact of economic globalization on individual human rights. Human rights and free trade are therefore potentially compatible goals, which depend on the configuration of international and domestic institutions; yet they are by no means inevitable. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this research explores this proposition across a sample of more than 150 states from the mid 1970s to the present.