Replication Data for: Call Me By Your Name: The Impacts of American Human Rights Violations in Authoritarian States

When the world’s leading human rights advocates violate international norms, how does this affect support for those norms around the world? Rather than diffusing norm breaking across borders, I argue that authoritarian states’ propaganda about liberal states’ violations may increase the salience of human rights norms in places where those norms are normally censored. Focussing on American racial discrimination, I find that the Chinese Communist Party publicises American human rights violations on to its citizens for strategic political reasons. Through two survey experiments I show that while exposure to American discrimination does provide substantial propaganda benefits to the regime, it also makes Chinese respondents more supportive of minority rights and more critical about their own country’s respect for those rights. The study shows how prominent violations of international norms may be an underappreciated means of strengthening global public support for those norms.

当全球顶尖的人权倡导者违反国际规范时，这会对全球范围内民众对这些规范的支持度产生何种影响？本文认为，威权国家针对自由民主国家违规行为展开的宣传，非但不会让违规行为在各国间扩散，反而可能提升这些规范在通常遭审查地区的凸显程度。本文以美国种族歧视为研究对象，发现中国共产党（Chinese Communist Party）出于战略政治目的，向本国公民宣传美国的人权侵犯行为。通过两项调查实验，本文证实：尽管接触美国种族歧视相关信息确实能为中共带来可观的宣传收益，但同时也会让中国受访民众更支持少数群体权利，且对本国在该权利领域的落实情况提出更多批评。本研究揭示，备受关注的国际规范违规行为，或许是一种长期被低估的、可强化全球民众对这些规范支持度的手段。