Towards an Understanding of Gendered Networks and Corruption: The distinction between processes during recruitment and representation

Abstract

This paper aims to proceed theoretically from the impasse of current research on the relationship between representation of elected women and national levels of corruption. A contradiction is identified in the literature, where two views with opposing causal explanations both claim that old boys' networks are the key to their thinking. The argument developed here contends that there is an important distinction to make between two processes of gendered networks: one that functions during candidate recruitment and one that functions during the representation on elected seats. These two processes, named here as "hindered by networks" and "clean from networks", illustrates how clientelism and corruption can affect the recruitment process by hampering the nomination of aspiring female politicians, but also that elected women could be less prone to corrupt behaviour due to their exclusion from existing corrupt networks. These processes are significantly different and can coexist. This insight suggests that the description in the literature of mutually excluding explanations of the gender-corruption relationship may need to be revised.