Who represents which social group and why in partisan legislatures? Social foci of representation in parliamentary questions in the Bundestag

Given its roots in analyses of the US Congress, previous studies on representation have frequently considered geographically circumscribed constituencies as the benchmark for individualized representation. This focus has led scholars to conclude that individualized parliamentary representation is rare in European, party-dominated legislatures. Building on the notion that geographic representation is a sufficient, but not a necessary criterion for individualized representation, the present contribution stresses social foci as an alternative point of reference for individualized representation. Contingent upon electoral contexts, biographical backgrounds and policy expertise, legislators might address socially defined subsets of the electorate to develop candidate-centered, individualized electoral coalitions. The argument is explored in this study using parliamentary questions in Germany. Specifically, we assess which concerns of societal interests are raised in parliamentary questions and whether legislators relate to groups that are aligned or not aligned with their respective parties. For the empirical investigation, we employ a dictionary-based text analysis to gauge which interests are expressed in parliamentary questions. To construct the dictionaries, we rely on an extensive database of interest group press releases where each organization represents a distinct social group. In a subsequent step, we match these data with survey evidence to explore which legislators are most likely to relate to non-aligned social groups and whether such an emphasis is motivated by policy, biography or electoral factors.