International audienceThe aim of this article was to investigate the district work of members of the French National Assembly (MPs), namely their contacts with citizens and other kinds of actors on the ground. Based on original data, our results show that the MPs’ constituency work is somewhat disconnected from the national political debate. They are close to their constituents and meet them regularly in surgeries or during local celebrations and events. Issues discussed are mainly oriented towards individual and local needs (housing, employment, etc.). A multivariate analysis highlights the different patterns of district work. Overall, this article suggests that district features and the MPs’ individual characteristics shape their behaviour in their constituency. By exploring the concrete practices of French MPs at home, this article offers new insights into parliamentary representation and into the different logics that underlie district work
Recent literature highlights the incentives emanating from the electoral system and intraparty politics to explain unequal access to the plenary floor. This article contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of electoral vulnerability on the likelihood to deliver speeches in a preferential voting system. Drawing on data from Finland, it argues that intraparty vulnerability has a negative impact on the likelihood to deliver speeches, whereas the opposite effect is expected regarding interparty vulnerability. The findings show that intraparty vulnerability is negatively correlated with the number of speeches and that this effect is even larger when intraparty competition is tougher. The article underlines the importance of individual electoral goals when exploring legislative speechmaking. It also shows the need to distinguish the two forms of vulnerability and to consider factors that mediate the electoral connection.
In the early 2000s, Simon Hix and his colleagues declared EP constitutes a good laboratory to test theories and hypotheses about legislative or party behavior. However, scholars mainly focused on roll-call votes analysis allowing them to investigate voting behavior, coalitions formation as well as activities in technical committees. We argue that work in Parliament should not be investigated without considering constituency work. Surprisingly, despite the institutionalization of district work, only a few studies focused on micro-level linkages between MEPs and citizens. The results show that MEPs are in contacts with citizens having matter with the EU but not directly with their constituents. In the district, MEPs are more experts of the EU than members of the community. By investigating day-today contacts between citizens and their MEPs, this paper offers a new perspective on the debate about the democratic deficit of EP and EU institutions.
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