Constituency service

Abstract

Constituency service refers to the set of activities carried out by Members of Parliament to serve the individuals residing in the constituency for which they were elected. This broad definition includes actions to represent the interests and demands of citizens in institutions and actions of contact and direct assistance that representatives can carry out for the benefit of their constituents outside of representative institutions. In this entry, we will review both the top-down and the bottom-up perspectives, their conceptual underpinnings, the seminal studies that embody each perspective, the structure of incentives for constituency work, and the methodologies used to research constituency service.