Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Muratovska, Milka
Author-Name: Kubbe, Ina
Author-Name: Merkle, Ortrun
Author-workplace-name: RS: GSBE MORSE, RS: GSBE MGSoG, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance
Title: Corruption as a Gendered Barrier: Informal Institutions and the Limits of Democratization in North Macedonia
Abstract: This article examines how corruption operates as a gendered informal institution that restricts women’s substantive political empowerment in post-socialist democracies. Focusing on North Macedonia, we argue that clientelism and male-dominated party networks function as gatekeeping mechanisms that limit women’s access to decision-making despite the presence of gender quotas. Drawing on a sequential mixed-methods study—including an online survey and in-depth interviews with women politicians—we show how informal party practices, electoral manipulation, and the co-optation of quotas create symbolic rather than substantive inclusion. By reframing corruption as a structural and gendered mechanism of exclusion, this study explains why formal democratization and numerical representation fail to dismantle entrenched patriarchal networks. These findings underscore the need for anti-corruption and democratization reforms that confront informal institutions, offering insights for other transitional and hybrid regimes where gendered exclusion persists beneath democratic façades.
Classification-JEL: d73,j16,p20
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20250930
Number: 2025-020
File-URL: https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/277204252/wp2025-020.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 1901065
Handle: Repec:unm:unumer:2025020
DOI: 10.53330/EIYG4072