Democracy and Human Rights in the Western Hemisphere: North American Perspectives

This chapter compares the foreign policies of the United States, Canada and Mexico concerning the promotion of democracy and human rights in the Americas. It analyzes whether the implementation of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 has fostered a convergence of the policies adopted by the three partners of this trade agreement. The chapter sheds new light on the impact of international institutions on state preferences. It provides an appropriate terrain for comparing the recent evolution of the foreign policies of the three members of NAFTA. The chapter contains three parts dealing respectively with the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It discusses the policy applied before 1994 to the promotion of democracy and human rights in the Americas, and then examines the more recent period. The chapter attempts to locate the results of the analysis within the broader framework of North American cooperation.