Does constituency focus improve attitudes to MPs? A test for the UK
Does constituency focus improve attitudes to MPs? A test for the UK
A substantial literature demonstrates that in advanced democracies the public generally prefer for MPs to be focused on their constituencies. However, prior research fails to prove that the general public is aware when MPs are doing so, and whether their views of the MP change correspondingly. I test this using a high-quality proxy for constituency focus – talking about the constituency in the House of Commons – linking this to British Election Study survey data on perceived constituency focus and trust. I show that ‘real' constituency focus strongly predicts perceived constituency focus and also predicts trust. As expected, these effects exist only for constituents who know (recall) their MP's name. While previous studies argue that the public want ‘workhorses' who offer ‘value for money’ by speaking in Parliament, I instead suggest that the focus, not the volume, of activity can be a more productive route for MPs to develop trust.
British politics, Constituency focus, Parliament, legislator behaviour, personal vote, political trust
1-26
Mckay, Lawrence
4ecf2fd8-3fbf-4a3c-9c22-6856fc1a09be
2020
Mckay, Lawrence
4ecf2fd8-3fbf-4a3c-9c22-6856fc1a09be
Mckay, Lawrence
(2020)
Does constituency focus improve attitudes to MPs? A test for the UK.
Journal of Legislative Studies, 26 (1), .
(doi:10.1080/13572334.2020.1726635).
Abstract
A substantial literature demonstrates that in advanced democracies the public generally prefer for MPs to be focused on their constituencies. However, prior research fails to prove that the general public is aware when MPs are doing so, and whether their views of the MP change correspondingly. I test this using a high-quality proxy for constituency focus – talking about the constituency in the House of Commons – linking this to British Election Study survey data on perceived constituency focus and trust. I show that ‘real' constituency focus strongly predicts perceived constituency focus and also predicts trust. As expected, these effects exist only for constituents who know (recall) their MP's name. While previous studies argue that the public want ‘workhorses' who offer ‘value for money’ by speaking in Parliament, I instead suggest that the focus, not the volume, of activity can be a more productive route for MPs to develop trust.
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Does constituency focus improve attitudes to MPs A test for the UK
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Accepted/In Press date: 11 January 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 24 February 2020
Published date: 2020
Keywords:
British politics, Constituency focus, Parliament, legislator behaviour, personal vote, political trust
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 445187
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/445187
ISSN: 1357-2334
PURE UUID: dcfef1d7-959d-4e2b-9d2c-ffe1e5bd1709
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Date deposited: 24 Nov 2020 17:35
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:03
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