Human Rights and the 1980 U.S. Presidential Election

Due to dramatic developments in international affairs and the starkly diverging foreign policy visions of the two candidates, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, foreign policy occupied a usually prominent role in the 1980 U.S. presidential election. A central component of the foreign policy debate was the appropriate role for human rights concerns in American foreign relations. Nevertheless, neither historians of U.S. presidential elections nor historians of human rights have devoted much attention to the issue. This article represents the first comprehensive study of the role of human rights in the 1980 U.S. presidential election. First, it examines the role of human rights in the foreign policy visions of the presidential candidates, focusing especially on Reagan’s criticism of Carter’s human rights policy. Second, it assesses the impact the issue of human rights had on the 1980 election and the way the 1980 election shaped the role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy.