Observing the 'Mandate Divide' in Germany? The Roles of Direct and List MPs in the Bundestag (NEW)

The German electoral system combines a personalized vote with proportional representation. It has been argued that these institutional characteristics bring about different incentives for directly elected MPs on the one hand and those that are elected through the party list on the other. As a consequence, the argument continues, there are two types of MPs in Germany that behave systematically different from each other. While the first tend largely to their district and follow “pork barrel” approaches to policy making, the latter base their behavior on party ideology. Empirical analyses – some of which are contested – have shown differences in committee assignment and communication style, but other authors have argued against the systematic difference of MPs according to their mandate type. Most importantly, the wide spread double candidacies for both types of mandate may yield “contamination” effects on the incentives mentioned above – causing list MPs to behave like directly elected ones. The paper reviews the relevant arguments and empirical findings on the mandate divide in Germany in order to formulate its research hypotheses. It then proceeds to investigate them based on data gathered in the CITREP project (“Citizens and Representatives in France and Germany”) among members of the 17th Bundestag: 61 Members of the German Bundestag were accompanied in their districts for three days each which adds up to nearly 1.000 hours of net observation time. First, structured field manuals were filled for each event observed there; second, open observation protocols for every MP provide qualitative reports by the observers; third, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 64 MPs. In this way, two types of data can be used for investigating the mandate divide that have not been available: the observation of actual behavior in the district and MP interview statements about their work. To conclude, the paper gives an outlook on what the findings may mean under changing circumstances of a more fractionalized parliament.