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AbstractThe absence of an electoral connection is a widely held assumption in the scholarship on the European Parliament (EP) and a cause of serious normative concern about the functioning of the European Union. Weak individual legislator accountability is part of this assumption, even if we still know little about the extent to which legislative performance matters for citizens in EP elections that allow preferential voting. This study is the first to analyse how legislative performance influences the preference vote shares of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and whether this is moderated by their parties' EU salience and incumbent intra‐party competition. It draws on an original dataset that combines candidate and electoral data from three rounds of EP elections held between 2004 and 2014 under open or flexible list rules with information on individual legislative activity (i.e., number of reports, parliamentary questions and speeches) and leadership positions at EP and committee level. One dimension of legislative performance, report writing, is associated with a larger share of preference votes but only for incumbents of parties assigning high salience to the EU. While MEPs win a higher share of preference votes when they face limited co‐partisan incumbent competition, this factor does not moderate the electoral connection.

AbstractGroup coordinators have a key role in shaping coherent policy agendas in European Parliament (EP) committees and in building consensus about the party line among the group's specialists. They also yield considerable discretion and influence legislative outcomes through their selection of rapporteurs. This article builds and expands on previous research to analyse longitudinally the determinants of group coordinator selection. The EP's gradual empowerment to co‐legislator status has arguably increased the stakes of selecting competent group coordinators. Drawing on a unique dataset that includes all party group coordinators of the European People's Party in seven terms of the EP (1984–2019), the article shows that committee incumbency, coordinator seniority and, to a lesser extent, ideological proximity to the committee contingent influence who becomes a coordinator. The results are robust to replication of analyses on a sample of Socialists and Democrats Members of the European Parliament and to controlling for several factors associated with partisan and distributive theories of committee organisation.

The article illustrates that legislators' constituency orientation can be enhanced through electoral system personalization, even in political systems that have used the party-centered closed list proportional representation for several elections. Leveraging a quasi-natural experiment, created by the 2008 electoral reform in Romania, the study investigates the frequency and determinants of parliamentary questions dealing with constituency issues and whether the reform has stimulated different forms of responsiveness toward constituents. The analyses run on a matched sample of legislators show that while the reform has not modified the proportion of all constituency questions, it has increased substantially the share of questions inspired by allocation responsiveness. Moreover, the effects of some determinants of constituency orientation changed after the reform: previous socialization in local politics loses its significance while we also observe an increased negative effect of non-local candidatures.

Although European Parliament committee chairs play a salient role in the legislative process of the EU, we know virtually nothing about their selection and whether policy specialization and the individual attributes of the MEPs matter in the process. This paper draws on a unique longitudinal dataset that includes all full committee members, information on their past committee experience and office in the first seven terms of the EP and data on their parties. Despite the complex proportionality rules that govern the selection of committee chairs in the EP and the interdependence between their distribution and the allocation of other legislative offices, I find that chair seniority shapes the nomination of committee chairs. On the contrary, there is no evidence that European Party Groups use chair selection to reward their most loyal members, while EPG leaders did become chairs more often than regular members in the early terms.

Although European Parliament committee chairs play a salient role in the legislative process of the EU, we know virtually nothing about their selection and whether policy specialization and the individual attributes of the MEPs matter in the process. This paper draws on a unique longitudinal dataset that includes all full committee members, information on their past committee experience and office in the first seven terms of the EP and data on their parties. Despite the complex proportionality rules that govern the selection of committee chairs in the EP and the interdependence between their distribution and the allocation of other legislative offices, I find that chair seniority shapes the nomination of committee chairs. On the contrary, there is no evidence that European Party Groups use chair selection to reward their most loyal members, while EPG leaders did become chairs more often than regular members in the early terms.

Drawing on a unique data set that combines legislative behaviour data and electoral results at two elections in Romania (2008, 2012) and one in Hungary (2014), the study assesses the overall electoral value of parliamentary questions dealing with local issues. Our multivariate regression analyses illustrate that the effect of constituency questions is distinguishable from that of the overall parliamentary effort of the MPs. Constituency questions brought Romanian MPs significantly more votes at each of the last two elections. In Hungary, where the scope for a personal vote was much more limited at the analysed elections, no effect is found.

Objectives Although a salient component of parliamentary delegation and accountability chains, the connection between individual campaigning and parliamentary behavior has not been measured systematically by empirical research. This study assesses the importance of campaign strategies and activities for constituency service. Methods We draw on an original data set combining the responses of 234 members of Parliament (MPs) participating at the 2010 Hungarian Candidate Study with their subsequent parliamentary questions. We content analyzed the questions and ran negative binomial regressions to evaluate if and how campaign activities influenced the MPs to introduce locally‐oriented questions. Results Our analyses show that a form of campaign socialization, the time devoted to meet local activists during campaigns, is a key predictor for the likelihood of introducing constituency questions, whereas campaign norms and messages matter less. Conclusions Ultimately, even though campaigns matter for constituency service, the MPs' shadowing behavior, their socialization in local politics, and their partisan affiliation is likely to matter more.

Drawing on a unique data set that combines legislative behaviour data and electoral results at two elections in Romania (2008, 2012) and one in Hungary (2014), the study assesses the overall electoral value of parliamentary questions dealing with local issues. Our multivariate regression analyses illustrate that the effect of constituency questions is distinguishable from that of the overall parliamentary effort of the MPs. Constituency questions brought Romanian MPs significantly more votes at each of the last two elections. In Hungary, where the scope for a personal vote was much more limited at the analysed elections, no effect is found.

Objectives Although a salient component of parliamentary delegation and accountability chains, the connection between individual campaigning and parliamentary behavior has not been measured systematically by empirical research. This study assesses the importance of campaign strategies and activities for constituency service. Methods We draw on an original data set combining the responses of 234 members of Parliament (MPs) participating at the 2010 Hungarian Candidate Study with their subsequent parliamentary questions. We content analyzed the questions and ran negative binomial regressions to evaluate if and how campaign activities influenced the MPs to introduce locally‐oriented questions. Results Our analyses show that a form of campaign socialization, the time devoted to meet local activists during campaigns, is a key predictor for the likelihood of introducing constituency questions, whereas campaign norms and messages matter less. Conclusions Ultimately, even though campaigns matter for constituency service, the MPs' shadowing behavior, their socialization in local politics, and their partisan affiliation is likely to matter more.