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Gender Differences in Perception of Need and Greed Corruption

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Gender Differences in Perception of Need and Greed Corruption Politics and Governance (ISSN: 2183–2463) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 92–102 DOI: 10.17645/pag.v8i2.2701 Article Do Men and Women Perceive Corruption Differently? Gender Differences in Perception of Need and Greed Corruption Monika Bauhr 1,2,3 and Nicholas Charron 1,* 1 Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, 41123 Gothenburg, Sweden; E-Mails: [email protected] (M.B.), [email protected] (N.C.) 2 QoG—Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg, 41123 Gothenburg, Sweden 3 Center for European Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author Submitted: 12 December 2019 | Accepted: 12 February 2020 | Published: 28 May 2020 Abstract Do men and women perceive corruption differently? While evidence suggest that there is a strong link between gender and corruption, and that gender differences can at least partly be derived from men and women having different attitudes towards corruption, most studies to date focus on gender differences in perceptions of the scale or severity of the corrup- tion in general, rather than its different forms. However, we argue that factors such as role socialization, social status and life experiences may make men and women perceive different kinds of corruption. Drawing on the distinction between ‘need’ and ‘greed’ corruption, we suggest that women are more likely than men to perceive that corruption is driven by need rather than greed. In particular, women may be more likely to be exposed to need corruption because of their greater care taking responsibilities both in the professional and private sphere, and, much in line with marginalization theory, have easier access to forms of corruption that are less dependent upon embeddedness in collusive networks. Using unique sur- vey data, we show that women and men indeed differ in their perceptions of need vs. greed, and that women perceive more need corruption, while men perceive more greed corruption. This suggests that perceptions of different forms of corruption are indeed gendered and we discuss the implication of this for anti-corruption policy. Keywords corruption; gender; greed; need; socialization Issue This article is part of the issue “Fighting Corruption in the Developed World: Dimensions, Patterns, Remedies” edited by Fabrizio Di Mascio (University of Turin, Italy) and Simona Piattoni (University of Trento, Italy). © 2020 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction ment of liberal democracy, or simply attributable to reversed causality (Bauhr & Charron, 2020; Brollo & In the past 20 years, studies have consistently shown Troiano, 2016; Correa Martinez & Jetter, 2016; Esarey & a strong link between gender and corruption (Dollar, Schwindt-Bayer, 2019; Jha & Sarangi, 2018). Thus, while Fisman, & Gatti, 2001; Esarey & Schwindt-Bayer, 2018; low corrupt and less patronage-based recruitment sys- Stensöta & Wängnerud, 2018; Swamy, Knack, Lee, & tems may indeed facilitate the recruitment of women Azfar, 2001). Studies have shown that at least under into office (Bjarnegård, 2013; Stockemer & Sundström some circumstances, increasing the share of women 2019; Sundström & Wängnerud, 2016), evidence also in elected office can lead to lower levels of corrup- suggest that women can make a difference once in of- tion. Closer empirical analysis of the relationship also fice. Within this research field, there are studies that suggest that this relationship is neither spurious, i.e., have shown gender differences in how citizens experi- solely driven by other factors such as the develop- ence, tolerate and perceive corruption on whole (Bauhr, Politics and Governance, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 92–102 92 Charron, & Wängnerud, 2019; Melgar, Rossi, & Smith, the macro-level association between women representa- 2010; Swamy et al., 2001). Theoretical frameworks seek- tion and lower levels of corruption (Dollar et al., 2001), or ing to explain this effect draw on both macro- and micro-level differences between men and women’s lev- micro-level theories on gender differences, to argue that els of tolerance towards corruption, whether expressed there are indeed systematic differences in how men and through vote choice (Alexander et al., 2019), perceptions women perceive corruption (Alexander, in press). of the extent to which corruption is justifiable (Swamy This study draws on this emerging body of work to in- et al., 2001) or the varying propensity of men and women vestigate systematic differences in public perceptions of to engage in corruption (Bauhr et al., 2019). This study corruption between men and women. However, it is com- builds on new data specifically designed to measure the mon in much of the empirical corruption literature to not distinction between need and greed corruption and a systematically distinguish and account for the vast varia- large sample of respondents to investigate how the per- tion between different forms of corruption (see Bauhr ceived nature of the corruption problem differs among et al., 2019, for an exception). When investigating the men and women. In doing so, we add to the rich liter- link between gender and corruption this may be partic- ature that seeks to explain the gender and corruption ularly consequential, since differences in role socializa- nexus to suggest that two factors in particular may drive tion, social status and experiences may make men and gender differences in the perceived prevalence of these women perceive not only differences in the scale or im- different forms of corruption. We highlight women so- portance of the corruption problems, but also make men cialization into greater care taking obligation, both in and women perceive different types of corruption. the private and public sphere and power marginalization Specifically, we build on the distinction between (Bjarnegård, 2013; Schwindt-Bayer, 2010) that tend to ex- ‘need’ and ‘greed’ corruption (Bauhr, 2017) and suggest clude women’s access to greed to a greater extent than that women are more likely than men to perceive that need corruption. corruption is driven by need and that men are more likely The study thereby adds to a closer understanding of to perceive that corruption is driven by greed. Following the link between gender and corruption, by showing that Bauhr (2017) we define need corruption as corruption the perceived nature of the corruption problem differs needed to gain access to public services and avoid trans- between men and women. An important challenge for gression of government power, and greed corruption as current anticorruption efforts is the vastly different na- corruption used to gain access to special illicit advan- ture of different forms of corruption; differences which tages, unfair privileges and wealth. We also draw on so- tend to be ignored in studies that employ the widely- cialization and marginalization theories to propose two used, aggregate measures, such as the World Bank’s potential explanations for the differences found. Gender Control of Corruption, or Transparency International’s differences in socialization into caretaking roles and pro- Corruption Perceptions Index. Specifically, anticorrup- fessions may explain differences in perceptions of the tion interventions may not have an equal effect across prevalence of need corruption, furthermore, much in different forms of corruption, and such interventions line with marginalization theories (for example, Barnes may thereby need to be tailored to the type of corruption & Beaulieu, 2018; Bjarnegard, 2013; Goetz, 2007; Heath, problem that they seek to address. Investigating public Schwindt-Bayer, & Taylor-Robinson, 2005), women are perceptions of different forms of corruption, and how it less likely to be included in the collusive insider networks varies across societies and groups, is therefore an impor- (which are often male-dominated) that facilitate greed tant first step in understanding public demand for differ- based transactions, and will thereby be less likely to per- ent types of anticorruption reforms. ceive this form of corruption as prevalent. Our analysis uses the third round of the European 2. Gender and Corruption Quality of Government Index survey (Charron, Lapuente, & Annoni, 2019), and data from 77,966 respondents in There is a growing literature that investigates gender 185 European regions. Within the survey, we employ differences in attitudes toward corruption. Using World unique questions capturing the need vs. greed forms of Value Survey data, Swamy et al. (2001) investigate re- corruption, and we show that women perceive higher spondents’ answers regarding hypothetical scenarios in- need corruption on average, while men tend to perceive volving dishonest and opportunistic behavior, such as a higher level of greed corruption. cheating on taxes or avoiding a fare on public trans- We thereby seek to make several interrelated con- port. They found that women were more likely than tributions. To the best of our knowledge, this study is men to respond that dishonest or illegal behavior was the first that systematically investigates gender differ- ‘never justifiable.’ These gender differences were also ences in the perceived prevalence of different forms found when investigating attitudes towards corruption of corruption, and in particular differences between in general, where women were found to be less likely
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