The Impact of Human Rights Conditions on Perceptions: A Multilevel Analysis of 58 Countries.

This article investigates the linkages between human rights practices of countries and people's perceptions of the human rights situation in their country. Previous studies demonstrate that people's attitudes about the human rights situation in their country are shaped by the level of government respect for human rights. However, the evidence for these claims is narrowly based on the study of a public opinion survey administered in 17 countries. The authors provide a more definitive test whether the theoretical linkage between objective conditions and people's perceptions holds in a much larger set of countries. Our results support the linkage argument between levels of government respect and people's perceptions.