There has been a brewing argument on the effects of economic globalization on the repression of human rights. My argument in this article joins the optimistic perspective on the relationship between the globalizing economy and state repression. I argue that governments consider backlash from investors in their decisions about whether to use repression. Investors, motivated by international human rights norms and a fear of violent conflict, would prefer that governments not introduce brute force into a nonviolent protest. Thus, governments in countries that depend more on foreign direct investment (FDI) should be less likely to use violence against protesters than those that are less dependent on FDI. Using data analysis of protest events and inward FDI stock, I test this argument and find a negative relationship between these two variables.
Do reports of sexual violence by state forces influence foreign direct investment? While studies have examined the impact of government human rights performance on FDI, how investors react to civilian victimization during wartime remains understudied. We investigate this with a focus on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). We argue that sexual violence by state governments results in the loss of FDI during conflict due to reputational and economic costs faced by foreign investors. With increasing international developments on CRSV, ties to governments that perpetrate sexual violence can be harmful to how the global community perceives foreign corporations. Moreover, government sexual violence signals that the government is relatively weaker than its opponent, creating uncertainties for foreign corporations regarding future investment opportunities in the host state. Analyzing sexual violence by government forces for all civil conflicts from 1989 to 2008, our findings show a decline in FDI as government sexual violence increases.
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