Speaking of home : local representation and reelection in Africa

This dissertation examines how parliamentary representation impacts the reelection prospects of MPs in Africa, and how the levels of local inter-party competition affect MPs' focus on representation. These are crucial questions in African states, where trust in parliaments is very low, and MP reelection rates are often about 30%. These conditions endanger the prospects of democratic consolidation and reduce the legislative body's ability to perform its constitutional functions, including lawmaking, checking the executive and preventing democratic backsliding.Conventional wisdom highlights clientelism and constituency service as the primary linkages between voters and politicians in the region. This state of the literature denotes the primacy of a local over national politics in regards to vote choice. I concur to this notion, but my central claim is that the provision of local representation is also key in understanding voting behavior in the region. I argue that parliamentary representation is an important and overlooked determinant of future support at the polls in Africa. In addition, I pose that the decision to prioritize representation depends on whether MPs rely on the party label for reelection. To explore these claims, I developed a unique dataset of parliamentary speeches made in Ghana, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. Statistical analysis of almost 960,000 speeches by 3,800 MPs offer sound support for both claims. In addition, using original experimental data from Malawi, I demonstrate that the provision of local representation in parliament affects vote choice. Finally, I provide evidence that citizens are aware of their MP's level of effort in representing the needs of the constituents in parliament.