District- or List-MP, Type or Episode? A Sequence Analysis of the typical Paths into the Bundestag

• Published in: Politische Vierteljahresschrift Vol. 53; no. 1; pp. 53 - 78
• Main Author: Manow, Philip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: German
• Published: 01.01.2012
• Subjects: Candidates; Careers; Committees; Differentiation; Districts; Elections to the lower chamber; Electoral Systems; Germany; Interest groups; Lower chamber; Parliamentary elections; Party politics; Political roles; Replication; Sequential analysis
• ISSN: 0032-3470

Does the German mixed electoral system produce two types of representatives -- a primarily locally oriented district-MP and a primarily party- or interest group-oriented list-MP? This article applies a sequence-analysis in order to identify the typical political career-paths of Bundestag-members. How frequent are parliamentary careers that could clearly be classified as "district-" or "list-careers"? In its second part the article replicates a study on committee-membership of different types of Bundestag-members. The original study claimed to find an over-proportionate number of district-MPs in so-called "district committees" and an over-proportionate share of list-MPs among the members of so-called "policy-committees". The replication's main finding is: there is strong evidence that the high number of list-MPs who at the same time contested a district represent district interests in their parliamentary behavior, too. The article therefore cannot find much support for the assumption that different electoral rules lead to "role differentiation" between those elected into the Bundestag via the district and those elected via the party-list. Adapted from the source document.