Data for: Stay Off My Field: Policing Boundaries in Human Rights and Democracy Promotion

<p><b>This is an <a href="https://qdr.syr.edu/ati">Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI)</a> data project. </b> <h3>The annotated article can be viewed on the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-theory/article/stay-off-my-field-policing-boundaries-in-human-rights-and-democracy-promotion/C8E9D06086D6A409AB133A5291D74EEB#annotations:group:zvEVDE2R" >publisher's website</a>. <h3/></p>

<h3>Project Summary</h3>

<p>The study of global politics is frequently organized around fields, but the boundaries of these fields are little understood. We explore the relationship between two proximate fields, human rights (HR) and democracy promotion (DP), in order to understand the emergence and maintenance of field boundaries. The two fields are closely linked in international law and practice, yet they have remained largely separate as fields of action, despite vast changes in global politics over four decades. The disjuncture has been largely maintained by HR organizations who police the boundary to keep DP out. We identify differences in anchoring norms as the key factor driving boundary maintenance. Actors in the two fields hold different foundational ideas about how to protect and advance rights, norms that we describe as cosmopolitan and statist. This account is superior to alternate explanations that emphasize functional demands or resource flows, and complements historical institutionalist accounts. Our research offers a theoretical contribution to the study of fields and practical insight into two important areas of global practice. Our qualitative research is supplemented by digital annotations, supported by the Qualitative Data Repository.</p>

<h3>Data Generation and Analysis</h3>

<p>We rely on a variety of forms of evidence in our research. These include contemporary and historical primary source material from state agencies, international organizations, philanthropies, and non-governmental organizations. We also draw upon 20 semi-structured interviews with key personnel that explored how actors in each field saw the other.</p>

<h3>Logic of Annotation</h3>

<p>We chose particular passages of the manuscript to annotate for several reasons. Most of our annotations provide an opportunity to illustrate generalized claims that we make, and thus are largely descriptive and take the form of source excerpts. The source excerpts come from relevant international treaties, organizational materials, and key informant interviews and writings, among other sources. These excerpts help substantiate claims that might otherwise feel weak, allow readers to assess some of our descriptive inferences themselves, and provide concrete illustrations to those unfamiliar with the human rights and democracy promotion sectors. Other annotations take the form of analytic notes that provide further data or context behind descriptive claims in the paper.</p>