A central question in political science is the nature of representation. The literature has long recognized that the representation of local and national interests is often contradictory. Furthermore, it has long been recognized that electoral systems, the formal rules that govern the process of voting and assigning legislative seats, are crucial to affecting the balance between local and national representation in democracies. The primary purpose of this project is to advance knowledge of how the "intraparty dimension" of electoral systems affects representation. The intraparty dimension concerns rules that affect the ways in which legislators and legislative candidates relate to their party organization, and to constituents. To date, most literature on electoral systems has focused on the interparty dimension, i.e. the translation of votes into seats for parties. This project focuses on the intraparty dimension by collecting, coding, and analyzing data at the level of the individual legislator/candidate, both in the form of biographical data (birthplace, political experience, occupation, etc.) and votes obtained by candidates and their ranks on party lists (where relevant, as in proportional-representation systems). Thus, the intellectual merit of the proposed research is to develop theory and data applicable to the intraparty dimension of legislative representation. A principal way in which electoral systems affect the local vs. national balance is through the incentives given by the rules for legislators and legislative candidates to cultivate a "personal vote," typically defined as that part of the vote that is based on a candidate's personal characteristics, experience, and service to constituents, rather than his or her party affiliation. Whereas parties are the primary vehicles for the representation of broad interests, including national issues, candidates often articulate their personal votes through a focus on more local or otherwise parochial concerns. Preliminary results of related research by the PI have shown that variations in electoral systems on the intraparty dimension affect the attributes of legislators under proportional-representation (PR) elections. For instance, the higher the degree of intraparty competition, the more likely legislators are: (1) to be native to the district they represent, and (2) to have electoral experience prior to entering the legislature. This investigation builds on these preliminary findings by (1) collecting additional data on the countries for which the PI has undertaken preliminary research, (2) extending the data collection on legislators to additional countries, including both proportional and nonproportional electoral systems, and (3) collecting, coding, and analyzing data at the intraparty level, including votes for candidates in systems that entail intraparty competition, and ranks on party lists for PR systems, on a wide range of democracies. The broader impacts of the proposed research are of at least three forms. First, the project will result in an extensive data set on legislators and intraparty voting and list ranks, which will be made available to other scholars and the general public for academic, research, and noncommercial purposes. Second, it will contribute to the professional development of graduate students, through employment as graduate student researchers. Third, extending political science research on the intraparty dimension will improve knowledge about the impacts of electoral reforms that are being contemplated in many countries, both established and transitional democracies, or may be contemplated in the future. The United States is among the countries in which there is increasing interest in the effects of electoral systems on the intraparty dimension. There is ongoing experimentation at the local level with alternative electoral rules, often as a result of Voting Rights or reapportionment controversies. At present, the discipline of political science has limited practical advice to offer regarding the effects of electoral systems on the intraparty dimension.
