We investigates how leadership change influences the use of governmental repression of human rights to physical integrity. We argue that the disparity in information between the leader and the opposition causes human rights abuses to occur. Such abuses should never occur when both groups have...

A science of human rights requires valid comparisons of repression levels across time and space. Though extensive data collection efforts have made such comparisons possible in principle, statistical measures based on simple additive scales have made them rare in practice. This article uses a...