Night and Fog: Are Bicameral States More Likely to Abuse Their Citizens?

Abstract

Bicameralism, according to John Coakley and others, made a comeback at the end of the twentieth century — which according to some signaled a welcome addition to the arsenal of institutional structures protecting human rights. A well-established statistical test of significance however demonstrates that bicameral states are in fact more associated with human rights abuses than unicameral ones.

Keywords: Bicameralism, Human Rights, John Coakley, G. Udny Yule, Karl Pearson, CIRI Human Rights Data Project