Democracy: Rewards For Ratification

Rewards for Ratification Democracy is a complex idea in that it can be used to describe a form of government, a method of choosing a government, a way to judge the way a state exercises their political power, a political culture, or a term applied to a whole society. However, for this paper, democracy will not be viewed as an event or process but rather a journey, involving several transitional phases before it can reach maturity over a period of time. Democratizing states and established democracy states are at different stages in the transition phase making their political decisions and actions differ greatly, but for now this argument will be focused on the issue of international human rights treaties. It is argued that newer democracies …show more content…
Jeffery Frieden, author of World Politics, supports this when he argues established democracies are less likely to ratify treaties because human rights are already secured through constitutional protections (Frieden). In other words, established democracies already respect human rights. Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, Political scientist professor at Princeton University, claims mature democracies and dictatorships have less reason to sign treaties because membership infringes on their sovereignty and requires them to commit resources, with few benefits (Burton). Established states feel that they have nothing to prove. They don’t have an interest in choosing to enter regimes designed to establish and monitor compliance with human rights standards because they know international legal arrangements are weak, enforcement is unlikely, and any costs of noncompliance are …show more content…
Similar to other democratic nations, The United States has the Constitution to help protect citizens and their rights. However, the reason they are reluctant to ratify treaties is due to Article II and VI. These two articles are written in a way that make ratifying treaties difficult and unappealing. Article II is written so that the President can only make Treaties with the consent of two-thirds of the Senate. Similarly, Article VI would cause treaties to trump national law, giving them the same status of power as the Constitution (U.S constitution). Ian Murray, vice president at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, argues the difference between the U.S. and European countries is that, in most countries, treaties are ratified by a vote of Parliament or by an executive decision. They then supposedly have the force of law, but few countries have the means of citizen enforcement of such law, which is why they can be safely ignored when convenient (Murray). Other nations don 't play by the rules of the game, whereas the U.S. is forced to. Ratifying treaties has less to do with the stage of democracy a state is in and more to do with what the State can gain from it. For a state to want to give up its power, they must feel that the benefits out way the cost which most often applies to democratizing states. Overall, the ratification of treaties not only depends on the