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The promise of precommitment in democracy and human rights : the hopeful, forgotten failure of the Larreta Doctrine
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Long, Tom (Thomas Stephen) and Friedman, Max Paul (2020) The promise of precommitment in democracy and human rights : the hopeful, forgotten failure of the Larreta Doctrine. Perspectives on Politics, 18 (4). pp. 1088-1103. doi:10.1017/S1537592719002676 ISSN 1537-5927.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592719002676
Abstract
Although international precommitment regimes offer a tool to escape the apparent contradiction between sovereignty and the international protection of democracy and human rights, they raise theoretical and practical questions. This article draws on multinational archival research to explore an overlooked historical episode and suggest new thinking regarding the logjams over sovereignty, incapacity of global decision making, and humanitarian imperialism. In 1945 and 1946, the American states engaged in a debate over the Larreta Doctrine, a Uruguayan proposal about the parallelism between democracy and human rights, and the regional rights and duties to safeguard these values. In the ensuing debate, the Uruguayan foreign minister elaborated a tripartite precommitment mechanism to create a web of national commitments to democratic governance and the domestic protection of human rights, to establish a regional insurance policy against failures to maintain those commitments, and to obligate the great power and neighboring states to precommit to working through the regional system instead of unilaterally. As a proposal that emerged from a weak state—and garnered support from states that faced internal and external threats to democracy and rights—the Larreta Doctrine offers insights on the central tension between state sovereignty and international commitments.
Item Type: | Journal Article | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Subjects: | F History United States, Canada, Latin America > F1201 Latin America (General) J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JL Political institutions (America except United States) J Political Science > JZ International relations |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Latin America -- Foreign relations, Latin America -- Politics and government, Human rights -- Latin America, Sovereignty, Intervention (Federal government) , Uruguay -- Foreign relations -- 1904-1973, Rodríguez Larreta, Eduardo,1888-1973, Diplomatic negotiations in international disputes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Perspectives on Politics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ISSN: | 1537-5927 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Official Date: | 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 18 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number: | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1088-1103 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1017/S1537592719002676 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This article has been published in a revised form in Perspectives on Politics http://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592719002676. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © American Political Science Association 2019. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright Holders: | American Political Science Association | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 18 June 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 26 June 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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