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Germany has both a federal system of government and mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral systems at both federal and Lander levels. The paper explains how most patterns in the constituency work of German MPs at both levels are functions of the electoral systems employed, party competition and tactical considerations. District MPs have significant commitments to constituency work; overall list MPs do as well, though to a lesser extent. The article defines three types of list MP, between which there are variations in both the volume of constituency work undertaken and engagement with individual constituents or group interests. Relationships between members are strongly related to partisan contests, although the overall legitimacy of both federal and electoral systems means there is no dispute over the rules governing the rights of different types of member in constituency work.

(1999). What can an individual MP do in German parliamentary politics? The Journal of Legislative Studies: Vol. 5, The Uneasy Relationships Between Parliamentary Members and Leaders, pp. 23-52.

Parliamentary role structures do not come into being as a consequence of the MPs’ behavioural preferences alone. In the German case, five constructive features constitute the casting mould within which the roles of MPs are formed: ‘team formation effects’ of the parliamentary system of government; professionalisation and division of labour within a ‘work parliament'; the fact that German MPs are, and hence behave as, party leaders; and role‐shaping effects both of interest groups and of constituency work. Based on a survey conducted in 1994 among all 2,800 German MPs, and on a return rate of about a third, the effects thereof are described. Subsequently, the ‘role partners’ or ‘counter roles’ of German parliamentarians are presented, and data on role orientations, role behaviour, role conflicts and parliamentary socialisation are discussed. Role orientations and role behaviour of German representatives are clearly correlated, and both match quite well the functional logic of representative democracy. On b...

This article analyses the communication network of German legislators with society. Using the ‘linkage approach’ to the study of political representation, and based on interviews and postal questionnaires administered to parliamentarians of the German state of Bavaria, the article discusses the personal linkages of legislators, their most important partners, their sources of information and political impulses, and their time budget devoted to ‘linkage activities’.