Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
The ability to monitor state behavior has become a critical tool of international governance. Systematic monitoring allows for the creation of numerical indicators that can be used to rank, compare and essentially censure states. This article argues that the ability to disseminate such numerical indicators widely and instantly constitutes an exercise of social power, with the potential to change important policy outputs. It explores this argument in the context of the United States’ efforts to combat trafficking in persons and find evidence that monitoring has important effects: countries are more likely to criminalize human trafficking when they are included in the US annual Trafficking in Persons Report, while countries that are placed on a “watch list” are also more likely to criminalize. These findings have broad implications for international governance and the exercise of soft power in the global information age.
Keywords
Human trafficking, International politics and governance, performance indicators, systematic monitoring, feedback, shaming, state policy outputs, social pressure theory, empirical analysis, criminalization
Publication Title
American Journal of Political Science
Repository Citation
Kelley, Judith and Simmons, Beth A., "Politics by Number: Indicators as Social Pressure in International Relations" (2015). All Faculty Scholarship. 2061.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/2061
Included in
Human Rights Law Commons, International Humanitarian Law Commons, International Law Commons, International Relations Commons, Journalism Studies Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Law and Society Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, Social Policy Commons, Social Welfare Commons
Publication Citation
59 Am. J. Pol. Sci. 55 (2015).