Mps Roles and Representation - Orientations, Incentives and Behaviours in Italy

This book examines the content of MPs' activities through which parliamentarians generate representative claims.
Challenging the idea that studying individual representation is a futile exercise, this book shows that looking at the opinions and behavioural patterns of parliamentarians can shed light on some important questions: What are the interests represented in parliament? How important are electoral incentives in shaping the role of representatives? What is the impact of parliamentarians' personal characteristics? Focussing on the role played by Italian members of the Chamber of Deputies across a period of more than 20 years, the study applies role analysis to connect the normative debates on political representation to empirical studies and is underpinned by a rich data set of parliamentary activities and surveys on parliamentarians' attitudes and opinions.
The book will be of key interest to scholars and students of legislative studies, European politics, Italian studies/politics, and more broadly to comparative politics.

List of contents

Introduction  1. The concept of representative role  2. The claimed role, between attitudes and strategies  3. Measuring MPs' claimed role through their parliamentary activities  4. Areal focus of representation  5. Sectoral focus of representation and issue specialisation  6. Type of responsiveness.  Conclusion

About the author

Federico Russo is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Salento, Italy.

Summary

This book examines the content of MPs’ activities through which parliamentarians generate representative claims.

Product details

• Authors: Federico Russo, Federico (University of Salento Russo
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2023
• EAN: 9781032158754
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3215875-4
• No. of pages: 136
• Series: Library of Legislative Studies
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; USA, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / National, Political structure & processes, United States of America, USA, Central / national / federal government, Political structure and processes, Central government