Human Rights as Social Representations

177 Pages·2002·3.055 MB·English

by  Willem Doise

Human Rights as Social
Representations
There are currently a large number of historical, philosophical, political and
judicial studies on human rights. However, a thorough social psychological
analysis of their intervention in social relations, extending across national
and cultural boundaries, has not been available. This book fills that gap,
providing a detailed examination of the foundations of human rights
principles, the sources of their universality and their limitations.
Using the tools of social representation theory, Willem Doise examines
human rights as guiding ideas which can provide institutionalized standards.
He then explores how these standards can be used to evaluate the relation-
ship of individuals with authorities and with each other.
Research discussed in this book confirms that the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights serves as an important landmark, guiding shared norma-
tive social representations across different national contexts. The author
also discusses how individuals position themselves in relation to human rights
according to what possibilities they see for having these rights respected by
both the government, and each other. This, he shows, is clearly related to
the value choices of individuals, their experience of social discrimination
and injustice, and the actual enforcement of human rights in their countries.
Essential reading for scholars and students studying social representation
theory and human rights, it will also be of great interest to those working
more generally in the fields of psychology, sociology and anthropology.
Willem Doise was born in Flanders, Belgium, and received his doctorate
(supervised by Otto Klineberg) in social psychology at the Sorbonne, Paris,
in 1967. He was a researcher at the French National Research Centre
(CNRS) in Paris between 1967 and 1972, and has been Professor of
Experimental Social Psychology at the University of Geneva since 1972. He
was President of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology
from 1978 to 1981. His main research interests are in intergroup relations,
social identity, socio-cognitive development, social repesentations and
explanations in social psychology. Droits de l’homme et force des idées, the
French version of this book was published in 2001.
Routledge Research International Series in Social Psychology
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This series represents a showcase for both the latest cutting-edge research in the
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to the social psychology of abnormal behaviour. The series is a rich source of
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Routledge is pleased to invite proposals for new books in the series. In the first
instance, any interested authors should contact:
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Routledge Research International Series in Social Psychology
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Promoting the welfare of communities, state and organizations
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Surveys of 18–20-year-old young people
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Human Rights as Social
Representations
Willem Doise
First published 2002 by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
© 2002 Willem Doise
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Doise, Willem, 1935–
Human rights as social representations / Willem Doise.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Human rights. 2. Social psychology. I. Title.
JC571.D65 2002
323–dc21 2002067989
ISBN 0-203-21967-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-27474-1 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-27928-3 (Print Edition)
Contents
List of illustrations ix
Introduction: social psychology and human rights 1
A double bind message 1
Human rights as normative social representations 8
1 Visions and institutions 11
Historical foundations 12
The League of Nations and the United Nations
Organization 14
Institutional definitions 18
New challenges 25
2 An interview study 31
Presentation of the research on rulings of the
European Court 31
Institutions and human rights 34
3 Limitations and violations in context 57
Human rights as normative social representations 57
A study in five countries 59
Two experimental studies of positioning 68
Principles in context 74
4 Socialization effects in Geneva 85
Young people and human rights 85
Adult social characteristics and representations 99
viii Contents
5 Common understanding and variations 109
A survey of students from thirty-five countries 110
A new survey 125
Conclusion: on the universalism of human rights 137
Shared representations and variations in positioning 137
Indivisibility or consolidation of rights 141
Universal principles and contextualized practices 143
Philosophical perspectives 146
Intersocietal foundations 149
References 155
Index 162
Chapter Title ix
Illustrations
Figure
5.1 Example of the first page of the questionnaire used by
Doise et al. (1999) 115
Tables
3.1 Mean ratings on the human rights violation scale of twenty
situations for the whole population and for the three clusters 62–3
3.2 Versions of news items with corresponding rights violations
and official statements of these rights 80–1
3.3 Mean judgment of violations and mean agreement with
corresponding rights 82
4.1 Examples of typical responses by typology based on open-ended
questions 88–9
4.2 Principal items of factors governing prototypicality ratings
with mean responses on a scale from 1 (bad example) to
4 (good example) 92
4.3 Number of respondents mentioning rights related to the articles
of the Universal Declaration 102
5.1 Description of the population sample: number of subjects by
country, type of studies and national characteristics 114
5.2 Mean responses of four groups obtained by cluster analysis 119
5.3 Percentages of each type of positioning by country (pancultural
analysis) 123
5.4 Lists of single values used to measure value types by Schwartz
(1992) 128