Looking at the socialization of MPs is important to understand both a parliament´s culture and a key mechanism of its institutional reproduction. It is also one facet of the professionalization for newly elected MPs. Though there is no linear relationship between seniority and the process of professionalization, the MPs` first term plays a vital role for the latter. Thus, empirical research rightly focuses on the adaption to formal and informal rules creating expectations and behavioral routines in parliament. Meanwhile, whether and how newly elected MPs behave differently with regard to their district activities has not yet been studied. The district provides a special context for at least three reasons: Firstly, there are no formal (written) rules how to behave on the ground. Secondly, since MPs are virtually “out there” on their own there is no collectively experienced “culture”. Finally, as a consequence, practices and routines of district work cannot easily be learned or copied from other MPs by imitating them. At best, good practices might be transmitted by more experienced MPs orally. The paper provides a first analysis of the question whether the first term of district work is “exceptional”, i.e. whether and how the activities of newcomer MPs differ from those of their colleagues with more seniority. For this purpose, it takes an explorative point of view and develops and tests different hypotheses for several facets of district activity (e.g. party behavior, explaining activities, publicizing efforts). Empirically, it draws on both observational and interview data from the CITREP project (“Citizens and Representatives in France and Germany”) which accompanied 64 Members of the German Bundestag in their districts for three days each.
