ionable. However, it is also important to note that implementing these protections can be a long process. It does not necessarily mean that countries are unwilling or unable to implement them into their system, it may mean the state has accepted these international standards and are gradually acting upon them. Political science thus allows us to see the progress of human rights in some states. Judging by Camp Keith’s findings human rights protections among member states of international conventions is no better than non-party states, suggesting an underlying reason as to why states do not conform to international standards.

Furthermore, James Vreeland’s (2008) study found that those who signed the UN (United Nations) Convention Against Torture (CAT) were more likely to practice torture. His study showed that dictatorships that subject individuals to torture are more likely to accede CAT than dictatorships that do not exercise torture. Torture was more likely to arise when there was shared power and differentiated depending on the regime type. Findings showed that democracies indicated modest progress, a dictatorship that had no space for opposition had no changing effects and states with competitive dictatorships showed a worse percentage of torture after the ratification of CAT. This is due to the fact that there are multiple political parties in competitive dictatorships thus political parties utilise their power and pressure regimes into acceding to the CAT (ibid). Pressuring the ruling governments into ratifying international instruments leads to uncertainty as it does not infer they are willing to oblige. Democratic states, on the other hand, are more likely to be responsive to its citizens, provide citizens with tools to overthrow potential abusive leaders from becoming a serious threat and make it easier for citizens to publicise attempts of repression worldwide (Henderson, 1991; Poe and Tate, 1994). Though it is necessary for political scientists to provide for a clear definition of democracy – such as those given by Bollen (1980) or Gurr (1995) – research has shown democracies which are based on civil and political rights, such as free speech, decrease a government’s use of political repression. Therefore, establishing what system of governance a state use is pivotal in order to measure the likelines