Preferences Over Democratic Institutions: A Politician?s View.

We outline competing theoretical conceptions of how political elites (politicians) view rules governing elections and representation. We use survey data from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand to examine whether MPs and candidates for parliament are motivated by electoral self-interest, ideology, or both when evaluating proposals for changing electoral institutions. Self-interest is defined here in terms of whether candidates for office were winners or losers. We find that respondents who won election and who are in government are least supportive of proposals to change institutions, while respondents who lost elections and were from parties out of government are most supportive of institutional changes. However, these self-interest effects are attenuated by ideology. We discuss how these findings have a complex relationship with the static nature of political institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]