2014/01/02 by Thomas Zittel
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Public Administration and Political Analysis
paper · doi:10.1080/00344893.2014.902217
Electoral systems provide incentives for legislators to either go it alone pursuing personal votes or to rather cooperate in teams seeking partisan votes. How does the German mixed system function in this regard? This article theoretically and empirically addresses this question with regard to the 17th German Bundestag and in light of most recent severe cutbacks in defence budgets providing incentives to pursue pork. The article draws from a newly collected database enclosing structural, behavioural and policy related information on individual legislators and the districts they represent.