Previous research has shown that individual politicians as well as parties engage in distributive politics in order to secure their re-election. Although this topic has received wide-spread popularity in general, knowledge on mixed-member systems still is very limited. This paper develops a framework showing how such systems affect the relationship between voters, candidates, and parties and what the role of distributive politics is. More specifically, attention will be directed to the mode of election (district vs. list), the prospects of re-election, and the possibility of dual candidacy (i.e. candidacy both in district and on party list) for candidates. It will be shown that especially the complex effects of dual candidacy and the therewith connected safeguarding function of party lists affect the behavior of politicians and, thus, the strategies of parties. The model will be applied to new data on federal road construction projects in Germany.
