The Constituency Service Basis of the Personal Vote for U.S. Representatives and British Members of Parliament

Abstract

Under the guise of the "incumbency advantage" American research of the past decade has devoted heavy emphasis to what may be termed the "personal vote" in Congressional elections. Is this phenomenon a purely American one, or is it something susceptible to comparative treatment? This paper contrasts the personal vote in the 1980 U. S. House elections with that in the 1979 British General Election. The analysis utilizes data from surveys conducted by the Center for Political Studies and British Gallup, respectively, in combination with interviews of House AAs and British MPs and party agents whose constituencies fall in the sampling frames of the mass surveys. The analysis finds an incumbency advantage or personal vote in Britain, much weaker than that in the U. S., but of somewhat greater importance than is commonly believed, As in the U. S. constituency service appears to be an important component of the personal vote.