The Impact of Democracies’ Sensitivity to Gender Equality on Corruption: 1900-2012

A large literature shows that democracies vary in the sensitivity of their institutions to gender equality. Both overtime and across the globe, democracies have developed more or less sensitivity to gender equality in the sets of rights and civil liberties that they adopt. As a result, countries show vast variation in the historical trajectories of their democratic institutions as concerns sensitivity to eradicating gender inequality. A burgeoning literature on gender equality and quality of government suggests that this may have implications for democracies’ potential to curb corruption. Through various proposed mechanisms, a growing evidence base suggests that higher levels of gender equality lower corruption. This paper investigates the relationship between democracies’ sensitivity to gender equality and the level of corruption with global data covering 1900-2012.The paper draws on the Varieties of Democracy Dataset to assess this relationship. The results add to the literature on the puzzle of democratic performance by bringing in the gender equality/quality of government link.