Candidates’ Representational Roles

In this paper we set out to present an overview of how candidates running for election around Europe view the task as an elected representative in terms of representational roles, that is who’s interests a representative should represent (focus of representation) and with what degree of independence the task should be carried out (style of representation). We are also interested in the revolving systematic patterns in terms of how candidates’ role perceptions vary according to individual and party characteristics as well as the setting of the electoral system. In our study, we use data from the Comparative Candidate Surveys and we focus on all candidates running for a given party, encompassing 63 parties, in 11 different political systems. Preliminary results indicate that candidates with high prospects of winning are less likely to have a partisan focus, indicating that they are more independent of their party compared to those with low chances of winning. For styles of representation, divided into party delegates, voter delegates and trustees we find that higher district magnitude increases on the party delegate style and that its’ impact is dependent on candidates perceived chances of winning. Candidates that consider their prospects of winning to be good are more likely to be party delegates when district magnitude is high but to be trustees when district magnitude is low.