Follow the Money: Gender, Incumbency, and Campaign Funding in Chile

Abstract

We examine women’s access to campaign resources using data from all 960 candidates competing in Chile’s 2017 legislative elections. Even when controlling for district characteristics, women candidates receive less money in party transfers, bank loans, and donations; place fewer personal funds in their campaigns; and have fewer resources overall. However, previous experience and incumbency narrow the gap. When women are newcomers, gender serves as an important cue about candidate quality and funders default to favoring men. Our results lend credence to practitioners’ claims that money disadvantages women candidates in democracies, but focuses attention on the disadvantage faced by women newcomers. Moreover, this gender gap in campaign funding exists despite a gendered electoral financing scheme designed to make political actors more likely to invest in women’s campaigns. While increasingly popular among development experts, our research suggests such schemes might be insufficient for equalizing campaign funding between men and women.

Payments and Penalties for Democracy: Gendered Electoral Financing in Action Worldwide

“…In Cabo Verde, top-down measures were adopted in legislation but never implemented (Borges, Muriaas, and Wang 2020). In Chile, the GEF scheme was insufficient to level the electoral playing field because of the disadvantage women have as electoral newcomers (Piscopo et al 2021).…”

Editorial introduction: Gender and political financing

“…In order for politics to feminize, some male incumbents need to be replaced with female challengers, but concerns about these women's viability made it harder for them to raise funds. This phenomenon emerged in Israel, Italy and Ireland, and has also been noted in Chile (Piscopo et al, 2021).…”

“…In Malawi and Ghana, gendered electoral financing initiatives such as discounted filing fees have been used to support women candidates (Muriaas et al, 2020). In Chile, the state provides financial assistance to female candidates directly and via parties who nominate them (Piscopo et al, 2021). In France, political parties are penalized through a reduction in their state funding if they do not respect the country’s parity quota.…”

Grandes donantes: dinero, élites y partidos políticos en Costa Rica (2010-2018)

“…En Colombia, se destacan los efectos de las reformas más recientes sobre financiamiento como respuestas al aumento en la volatilidad electoral, durante las campañas más recientes (2018). En Chile, prevalecen los estudios que tienen que ver con el acceso a recursos privados por parte de candidaturas parlamentarias y el éxito electoral (Morales y Piñeiro, 2010), en donde incluso la brecha de género ha sido recientemente considerada como un factor que puede decantar la dirección de los donantes (Piscopo et al, 2022). En el caso peruano, de forma similar a Bolivia y Venezuela, Tuesta (2011) ha estudiado los desafíos de las campañas electorales, las cuales se han caracterizado históricamente por el aporte fundamental del financiamiento a partir de recursos privados.…”