Patterns of Committee Assignment and Legislative Activity in Closed-List PR Systems: The Case of Spain

One of the most widely-accepted statements in political science is that personal vote does not exist in closed-list proportional representation (CLPR) systems. In this paper, we challenge this common assumption and argue that a sort of personal representation emerges in parliaments elected under this kind of institutional framework. In order to so, we show that the committees’ assignments in the Spanish Parliament are designed to (1) serve geographical interests outside the legislature and (2) bring informational benefits to the plenary. In the second part of the paper, we also examine whether those that run at the top position (list pullers), and those that are placed in risky slots (marginal candidates) tend to engage in more parliamentary work than the average MP.