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The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators
The early 1990's marked the beginning of a new era for Southern Africa when a number of single party states began the transition to multiparty democratic systems. Within this process, democratic institutions were established and then have since played varied roles in normalizing of democratic norms...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Political Studies
2014
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| _version_ | 1867614372058103808 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Shearman, Leah Claire |
| author2 | Mattes, Robert |
| author_browse | Mattes, Robert Shearman, Leah Claire |
| author_facet | Mattes, Robert Shearman, Leah Claire |
| author_sort | Shearman, Leah Claire |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The early 1990's marked the beginning of a new era for Southern Africa when a number of single party states began the transition to multiparty democratic systems. Within this process, democratic institutions were established and then have since played varied roles in normalizing of democratic norms in their respective countries. The elites who make these institutions play a vital role in maintaining democracy within these countries. This study examines their perceptions and actions in order to get a better understanding of the quality of representation and as a result the quality of democracy. More specifically the study examines how possible micro and macro level factors, such as electoral competitiveness, role orientations and electoral systems affect the level of constituency service performed by legislators in five Southern African countries (South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and Zambia). The majority of data used in this study comes from Module 3 of the African Legislatures Project. Electoral data was also collected from national electoral commissions and country experts. The results indicate that as a whole the electoral system has an effect on the level of constituency service conducted by legislators. Role orientation does not appear to be a factor in legislator's decision about the amount of constituency service they will perform. Electoral competition is a factor for number of countries in the study. However, the evidence shows that in some cases higher levels of electoral competitiveness actually induce legislators to perform less constituency service. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/3696 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:50:59.582Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | Department of Political Studies |
| publisherStr | Department of Political Studies |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/3696 The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators Shearman, Leah Claire Mattes, Robert Democratic Governance The early 1990's marked the beginning of a new era for Southern Africa when a number of single party states began the transition to multiparty democratic systems. Within this process, democratic institutions were established and then have since played varied roles in normalizing of democratic norms in their respective countries. The elites who make these institutions play a vital role in maintaining democracy within these countries. This study examines their perceptions and actions in order to get a better understanding of the quality of representation and as a result the quality of democracy. More specifically the study examines how possible micro and macro level factors, such as electoral competitiveness, role orientations and electoral systems affect the level of constituency service performed by legislators in five Southern African countries (South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and Zambia). The majority of data used in this study comes from Module 3 of the African Legislatures Project. Electoral data was also collected from national electoral commissions and country experts. The results indicate that as a whole the electoral system has an effect on the level of constituency service conducted by legislators. Role orientation does not appear to be a factor in legislator's decision about the amount of constituency service they will perform. Electoral competition is a factor for number of countries in the study. However, the evidence shows that in some cases higher levels of electoral competitiveness actually induce legislators to perform less constituency service. 2014-07-30T03:43:40Z 2014-07-30T03:43:40Z 2010 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/3696 eng application/pdf Department of Political Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Democratic Governance Shearman, Leah Claire The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators |
| title_full | The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators |
| title_fullStr | The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators |
| title_short | The Legislator -Constituent relationship in Southern Africa: The extent to which electoral competitiveness, electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators |
| title_sort | legislator constituent relationship in southern africa the extent to which electoral competitiveness electoral systems and role orientation affect levels of constituency service conducted by legislators |
| topic | Democratic Governance |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/3696 |
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