What a Difference a State Makes: Measuring State-Level Violations

• In Event: New Research Directions in Federalism

Abstract

Human rights abuses have typically been measured at the country level such as Freedom House and the Political Terror Scale. However, in the United States, federalism means power is dispersed among different levels of government with significant tension between the federal and state levels. Specifically, the 10th Amendment provides for reserve powers where states have autonomy in police powers. In addition, states have traditionally engaged in passive resistance, obstruction, and even nullification of federal laws that conflict with their point of view. The tradition of massive opposition persists today as states continue to resist voting rights and engage in more violent forms of repression in such areas as border security and police detention. The recent border dispute between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and U.S. border patrol is just one illustration. Thus, we might expect a significant variance in human rights conditions among states in the United States. To measure the variance of repression among states, we developed a state-level ordinal scale of personal integrity rights violations. This paper discusses the ordinal scale, the justification of the data sources, and the first analysis of the data.

Authors

• Julie Harrelson-Stephens, Stephen F. Austin State University

• Rhonda L. Callaway, Sam Houston State University