Parliamentary Roles in Modern Legislatures

Blomgren, Magnus; Rozenberg, Olivier

doi:10.4324/9780203126493

Cited by 32 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…As pointed out in the preceding section, MPs generally have to balance competing activities. In particular, they must provide services to their constituency (or electorate) and – at the same time – fulfil a national legislative function (Blomgren and Rozenberg ). In France, the tension between these two functions is especially strong with MPs electorally rooted in their constituency but requested by the constitution to act as “representatives of the nation” (not just of their constituency) (Costa and Kerrouche ).…”

Section: Case Selection and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Voters’ Knowledge of Their Representatives: The Direct and Conditioned Effects of Parliamentary Work

Audigier

Navarro

2020

Swiss Political Sci Review

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This article examines factors that influence voters’ knowledge of their representatives, a key element in securing the responsiveness and accountability of parliamentarians. We argue that the parliamentary work of MPs (Members of Parliament) benefits incumbents through increased name recall, and that this relationship is conditional on: the incumbents’ candidacy; the voters’ political competence; and their ideological proximity with their representatives. Combining data on French MPs’ activities with a 2007 CSES post‐election survey enables us to test our hypotheses, while controlling for confounding factors. The empirical analysis demonstrates that some parliamentary activities increase the voters’ capacity to recall the name of their MPs. The latter are therefore incentivised to be responsive to and serve their constituents. However, we also find that voters’ political competence and ideological proximity with their MP alter the relationship between parliamentary work and name recall. This may potentially introduce some biases in the democratic process of accountability.

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Section: Case Selection and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Voters’ Knowledge of Their Representatives: The Direct and Conditioned Effects of Parliamentary Work

Audigier

Navarro

2020

Swiss Political Sci Review

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“…Their views on representation are not random individual tastes, but articulate perceptions as to what they think is expected of them that likely inform their behaviour in the legislative arena and in the constituency (Andeweg ). As such, Blomgren and Rozenberg (: 220–222) have strongly called on scholars to inquire into the effect of growing multilevel governance, through supra‐nationalisation and decentralisation, on legislators’ interpretation of their position.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

State structure and political representation: Comparing the views of statewide and sub‐state legislators across 14 countries

André

Depauw

Deschouwer

2016

European J Political Res

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How the recent creation, re‐invention or reinforcement of regional levels of political decision making across Europe compounds political representation is one of the key issues of contemporary democratic government. Despite growing scholarly interest, the critical question as to whether the regional institutional setting has brought about distinct representational roles among sub‐state legislators has yet to be addressed. To advance research in this field, this study bridges the literature on multilevel politics and legislative studies that to date have developed in isolation. Using innovative survey data from 14 statewide and 56 regional legislatures across Europe, it provides the first comprehensive test of how the state structure affects a legislator's views on representation. The results highlight that, relative to legislators in unitary states and national legislators in multilevel states, legislators at the regional level are more constituency‐oriented. Moreover, this heightened responsiveness to constituents at the regional level is not offset by weaker collective representation operating through political parties. Beyond these findings’ immediate relevance to scholars of federalism/regionalisation and parliaments, they also speak to the wider normative debate about the quality of political representation and public policy.

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“…A partisan style of representation implies that politicians remain loyal to the political program formulated by their party over other considerations when voting and communicating in public. In contrast, the delegate style and trustee style imply that they follow the interests of their constituency or their own conscience, respectively (Eulau et al 1959; representative styles exist but that the partisan style of representation tends to dominate (Blomgren and Rozenberg 2012;Martin 2014;Deschouwer and Depauw 2014). By institutional design, parties hold control mechanisms, such as control over candidate nomination, committee assignment, and campaign financing, to enforce loyalty and, in turn, govern effectively (Kam 2009;Martin 2014;Bøggild and Pedersen 2018).…”

Section: Political Representation In Party Democraciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politicians as Party Hacks: Party Loyalty and Public Distrust in Politicians

Bøggild

2020

The Journal of Politics

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Public distrust in politicians is widespread across Western democracies. This general pattern suggests that the problem not only reflects dissatisfaction with government performance and misconduct-the main focus in existing research-but also how democratic politics is generally conducted. This article identifies a mismatch between the representation facilitated by modern democracies and the representation wanted by a majority of citizens. Because political representation is organized around cohesive parties, several institutions incentivize politicians to exhibit loyalty to party policy over other considerations (partisan representation). Observational and experimental data from three countries demonstrate that citizens generally perceive politicians as conducting partisan representation, but they prefer that politicians follow their own conscience (trustee representation) and constituency (delegate representation) over party policy. This mismatch translates into distrust in politicians, even in countries with strong norms for party discipline and among politicians' own party supporters. The findings have implications for understanding and counteracting political distrust.

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Parliamentary Roles in Modern Legislatures

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

Voters’ Knowledge of Their Representatives: The Direct and Conditioned Effects of Parliamentary Work

Voters’ Knowledge of Their Representatives: The Direct and Conditioned Effects of Parliamentary Work

State structure and political representation: Comparing the views of statewide and sub‐state legislators across 14 countries

Politicians as Party Hacks: Party Loyalty and Public Distrust in Politicians

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