Electoral benefits and limitations of incumbency.

• Author: Marland, Alex

Alex Marland is a research analyst with Ekos Research Associates Inc. This article is an extract from his M.A. thesis submitted to the Department of Political Science at Memorial University, Newfoundland.

Conventional wisdom holds that the key to re-election is to offer a range of constituency services while in office, and then organize a formidable campaign team. During campaigns, grassroots electoral operations (such as canvassing) attempt to increase the local candidate or party vote share. After the contest, winners are congratulated for a strong local campaign and for understanding the electorate, while losers tend to attribute defeat to factors beyond their control. This article examines the assumption that local electoral activities are crucial to the result.

With an eye towards re-election, incumbents maintain a range of constituency services although the types of services range widely, and the extent to which they are offered differs depending on the member.

Specific services include addressing constituent correspondence, answering phone calls, scheduling constituent appointments, writing for community newspapers, maintaining constituency offices, attending ceremonial functions and constituency gatherings, dealing with constituents' concerns (which often means directing them to the proper official), distributing congratulatory letters, and generally engaging in informal contacts with constituents. Because riding population levels influence expectations, service provision ranges widely between legislatures, political parties, and incumbents (regardless of party affiliation).(1) Canadians' demand for their politicians to be loyal to their constituents has helped produce incumbents who are frequently motivated by a desire to serve their community.(2) Moreover, emphasis on constituency work comes naturally to MPs and provincial politicians who typically have previously worked for a political party or have been elected at the municipal level.(3)

Incumbents can be classified as three types: "local representatives," who represent local or regional constituency interests and are locally involved in the constituency; "partisans," who promote party policies and the party leader; and "legislators," who emphasize policy work in Parliament.(4) Although partisan and legislator incumbents are less preoccupied with service provision than are the "local representatives", they do not ignore their constituents - all incumbents maintain some level of constituent communication.

Incumbent-constituent interaction may occur through "symbolic responsiveness" (communication through newsletters, quarterly householders, and congratulatory messages), "policy responsiveness" (attempts to represent the constituents' views and opinions), "service responsiveness" (interception with bureaucrats to improve government), or "allocative responsiveness" (lobbying for projects, grants or contracts for the constituency).(5) To maintain communication, members must balance several constituent-focused roles: the "case work" role (where staff obtain information for, and forward the concerns of, constituents), the "constituency-based policy" role (where the incumbent searches for constituency benefits in programs or legislation), the "national policy concerns" role (where the member expresses the views of constituents in policies), and the "social" role (where the incumbent attends constituency events). (6)

Why do elected representatives offer such a wide range of services? Incumbents tend to believe that it is very important in securing re-election. Multiple studies have found that Canadian incumbents believe in their ability to shape voter support, and that the importance of providing constituency services has been increasing over time. (7) Recently, surveys of MPs from the 34th and 35th Parliaments found that a majority believed that their constituency work had the most influence on their re-election. (8) These...