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Voters reward hard-working MPs: empirical evidence from the French legislative elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2019

Abel François Open the ORCID record for Abel François [Opens in a new window]  and
Julien Navarro Open the ORCID record for Julien Navarro [Opens in a new window]
Abel François
Affiliation:
Faculté de Sciences Économiques et Sociales, LEM (UMR 9221), Université de Lille, Cité Scientifique, Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France
Julien Navarro*
Affiliation:
ETHICS EA 7446, Université Catholique de Lille, Lille Cedex, France
*
*E-mail: julien.navarro@univ-catholille.fr
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Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between incumbent MPs’ activities and their electoral fortune. We address this question in the context of the French political system characterized by an executive domination, a candidate-centered electoral system, and an electoral schedule maximizing the impact of the presidential elections. Given the contradictory influence of these three institutional features on the relationship between MPs’ activities and electoral results, the overall link can only be assessed empirically. We test the effects of several measurements of MPs’ activities on both their vote share and reelection probability in the 2007 legislative election. We show that MPs’ activities are differently correlated to both the incumbents’ vote shares in the first round and their reelection. Despite the weakness of the French National Assembly, several parliamentary activities, especially bill initiation, have a significant effect on MPs’ electoral prospects.

Keywords

personal voteparliamentary activitiesconstituency serviceelectoral connectionincumbents’ reelectionFrench National Assembly
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , November 2019 , pp. 469 - 483
Copyright
© European Consortium for Political Research 2019 

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