The House is not a home: British MPs in the constituencies

Abstract

The British parliamentary system supposedly denies MPs the electoral incentive and the staff resources to engage in constituency service in the style of members of the U.S. Congress. Backbench MPs presumably aspire to ministerial office and therefore concentrate their activity on the work of the House. Case studies of 17 MPs, however, reveal that the constituency orientations of MPs are more varied than the conventional wisdom suggests, that some resemble the Homestyle of U.S. representatives, and that nearly all believe that attention to their constituents can protect them against national electoral swings. A close examination of the constituency orientations of five MPs suggests the cross-national utility of Fenno's distinction between geographical, re-election, primary, and personal constituencies and his categories of "presentation of self."

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