How do rising levels of international interconnectedness affect social, economic, and political conditions for women? Research on gender and international relations frequently offers clear propositions but seldom submits them to broad, quantitative testing+ This article begins to fill that gap+ We advance the hypothesis that, on balance and over time, increasing cross-national exchange and communication lead to improvements in women's status and equality+ Economic aspects of globalization can bring new opportunities and resources to women+ But equally important, globalization promotes the diffusion of ideas and norms of equality for women+ In an analysis of 180 countries from 1975 to 2000, employing cross-sectional-timeseries regression techniques, we examine the impact of several measures of globalization on women's levels of life expectancy, literacy, and participation in the economy and parliamentary office+ International trade, foreign direct investment, membership in the United Nations~UN! and World Bank, and ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women~CEDAW!, are associated with improved conditions for women+ How do rising levels of international interconnectedness affect the social, economic, and political conditions for women? Competing hypotheses are easy to identify+ Indeed, research on gender and international relations sometimes offers clear propositions but seldom submits them to broad, quantitative testing+ This article begins to fill that gap+ We expect to find a considerably mixed picture: some women will benefit from globalization and some will be hurt; the status of women will improve in some respects but not others+ Nevertheless, we advance the hypothesis that, on balance and over time, increasing cross-national exchange
*This paper was prepared for a special issue of the Journal of Common Market Studies edited by Alec Stone Sweet and Walter Mattli. We would like to thank the editors, the other participants in the issue, and the outside reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft.
AbstractEarly theorists of European integration speculated that economic integration would lead to political integration and a European identity. A European identity has not displaced national identities in the EU, but, for a significant share of EU citizens, a European identity exists alongside a national identity. At the same time, political parties asserting more traditional nationalist identities and policies have directed their dissatisfaction against immigrants, foreigners, and, sometimes, the EU. Those who participate in "Europe" are more likely to develop a European identity, while those whose economic and social horizons are essentially local are more likely to assert nationalist identities.2
We argue that greater degrees of international integration lead to lower levels of corruption, which we define as the misuse of public office for private gain. We theorize that international factors affect a country's level of corruption through two principal channels. One acts through economic incentives, altering for various actors the costs and benefits of engaging in corrupt acts. The second mode is normative. Prevailing norms in international society delegitimate and stigmatize corruption. Countries that are more integrated into international society are more exposed to economic and normative pressures against corruption. We therefore test the following hypothesis: the more a country is tied into international networks of exchange, communication, and organization, the lower its level of corruption is likely to be. The analysis of data from approximately 150 countries strongly confirms our expectation.
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