Political representation, and more specifically, roles of representation, is at the core of democracy (Eulau et al. 1959; Pitkin 1967). Whereas empirical research on roles of representation has attracted its fair share of attention, relatively little interest has however been paid to the extent that representatives’ role perceptions are influenced by the electoral context (see Costa et al 2012 for a recent exception). The aim of this paper is to examine the way in which the electoral system shapes role perceptions by a comparative study of Norwegian and Finnish Parliamentary candidates. In open-list proportional representation (OLPR) such as the Finnish, candidates are required to engage in personal vote seeking behavior due to the high level of intra-party competition (cf. Carey and Shugart, 1995), while in Norway the electoral system leaves voters no influence on the candidate order. The different prerequisites given by the electoral system is likely to shape the relationship between political representatives and their constituents. Consequently we argue that in Finland candidates have greater incentives to downplay the role of the party compared to candidates running for election in Norway, which may influence both the foci and style of representation. The data utilized is collected in the framework of the Comparative candidate study performed in conjunction with the 2011 Finnish (n=915), and the 2009 Norwegian (n=1015) parliamentary elections.
