Institute of Governmental Studies

We analyze a model of constituency service provision to understand how the level of constituency service responds to variation in both institutions and the competitiveness of elections. We show that single-member districts, separately elected executives, and more ideologically balanced electorates all increase incentives for constituency service. We use these results to explain why constituency service and party strength are negatively related in comparative evidence but positively related in historical evidence. We also discuss incentives for divided delegations and for personalized constituencies in multi-member districts.