State Fragility and Structural Gender Inequality in Family Law: An Empirical Investigation

Donna Lee Bowen, Valerie M. Hudson and Perpetua Lynne Nielsen
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Donna Lee Bowen: Department of Political Science, Brigham Young University, 794 Kimball Tower, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Valerie M. Hudson: The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, 4220 TAMU, 1079 Allen Building, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Perpetua Lynne Nielsen: Department of Statistics, Brigham Young University, 223B TMCB, Provo, UT 84602, USA

Laws, 2015, vol. 4, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: In this paper we examine the linkage of male-dominant family law systems and levels of nation-state security and stability. We expect such societies to be predisposed to parasitical rent-seeking and inefficiency, combined with coercive conflict resolution, resulting in higher levels of violence within the society. We demonstrate empirically that states with inequitable family law also exhibit higher levels of state fragility. Using standard indicators of state stability and security, our empirical results show that the ability to predict levels of state stability and security is significantly enhanced by examining a measure of Inequity in Family Law in addition to more conventional explanatory variables such as literacy rate, level of democracy, and civilizational influence.

Keywords: inequitable family law; security; state stability; peacefulness; state fragility; male-dominant (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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