Mating and Political Inequality

Abstract

Political equality is one of the cornerstones of a well-functioning democracy. Yet, very few democracies live up to this ideal. In this dissertation, I show that a central part of human behavior, mating, can help us explain why political inequalities are difficult to change. I provide a theoretical argument of why mating structures and family formation patterns are crucial to our understanding of unequal turnout and unequal political representation. In three different research papers, I study the relationship between mating and political inequality between socioeconomic groups as well as mating and political inequality based on gender. The results show that mating structures are a key aspect when explaining why political inequality is persistent in many democracies. I conclude that mating cannot be overlooked when seeking answers to why political inequalities are difficult to change.