Do Not Bite the Hand that Feeds You: How Crisis and Politician Gender Shape the Acceptability of Corruption

When do voters view corruption as acceptable, and does corruption’s acceptability change based on the malfeasant politician’s gender? In corrupt contexts, elected officials may need to “grease palms” to deliver desirable public goods to constituents. Though people across contexts express disapproval of corruption, people also want to receive beneficial political outcomes from their representatives. Voters may decide that the corruption that makes these desirable outcomes more likely is worth tolerating. We explore the acceptability of corruption in the context of droughts, crises that require a government response to provide drought relief to impacted constituents. We use a survey experiment in Brazil, where corruption is particularly prevalent in disaster relief processes, to test how voters respond to different types of corruption when it is framed as necessary to obtain relief resources. We also test how the gender of the corrupt politician impacts corruption acceptability, as voters often have distinct expectations around women’s engagement with corruption. Our findings reveal important insights about how crises can make corruption acceptable to voters, and they also demonstrate how women politicians face different voter standards when operating in corrupt contexts.