Within Constituency Representation: Voters, Party Growth and Personal Ties.

A substantial body of research has focused on explaining why legislators vary in their level of engagement with constituents compared to their involvement in other legislative activities. One prevalent method for legislators to connect with their constituency is geographical representation. This involves addressing the problems and issues of geographically defined areas within their constituency in parliament, typically a municipality. Such engagement helps legislators address local issues, enhances their visibility, and may increase their chances of nurturing a personal vote. Previous studies have primarily examined how different electoral systems influence legislators' incentives to engage in these activities, as well as how legislators' roles within parliament and the influence of political parties affect their levels of engagement. However, much of the existing literature treats the electoral constituency as a homogeneous entity, assuming that actions benefiting one part, such as a single municipality, benefit the entire constituency. This paper follows recent works (Pratas et al., 2024) and challenges this assumption by suggesting that legislators may show bias towards specific areas within their constituencies. We propose that legislators are likely to focus on areas where their parties receive more votes, where there is potential for party growth, and where MPs have personal ties. Empirically, we employ text-as-data methods to reveal the geographical focus of parliamentary questions and examine the behavior of Spanish MPs since the late 1990s.