The Levels and Conditions of Gyroscopic and Surrogate Representation: An Analysis of the Foci of Representation of Constituency Candidates in the 2017 German Federal Elections

Responsiveness requires decision makers to take the interests of citizens into account. The question whom legislators are responsive to and for what reasons however has been a contested issue in the literature. While responsiveness to voters is a long-standing assumption in this regard, recent debates on the concepts of gyroscopic and surrogate representation challenge this view. Both concepts stress the subjective character of legislators’ foci of representation and their underlying non-electoral mechanisms. This paper explores the extent to which candidates for legislative office consider their own conscience or social groups that reach beyond their national or local support coalitions as important foci of representation. It draws from data collected in the 2017 German Candidates Studies. These data include a question on candidates’ primary foci of legislation that can be regressed on electoral variables such as their mode of candidacy (list vs. nominal) and their competitiveness on the one hand and their recruitment experiences and biographical backgrounds on the other.