A New Relationship Between Legislators and Political Parties?
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Personalization of Representation: A New Relationship between Legislators and Political Parties? Marie Kaldahl Nielsen Personalization of Representation: A New Relationship between Legislators and Political Parties? PhD Dissertation Politica © Forlaget Politica and the author 2021 ISBN: 978-87-7335-276-2 Cover: Svend Siune Print: Fællestrykkeriet, Aarhus University Layout: Annette Bruun Andersen Submitted June 18, 2020 The public defense takes place May 7, 2021 Published April 2021 Forlaget Politica c/o Department of Political Science Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University Bartholins Allé 7 DK-8000 Aarhus C Denmark Table of Contents Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................ 7 Preface ........................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 13 Chapter 2. State-of-the-art: situating the project in a blooming research agenda ... 17 Three conceptual distinctions ............................................................................... 17 Literature review of political personalization ....................................................... 21 Institutional personalization ................................................................................ 23 Government institutions ....................................................................................... 23 Personalization of electoral reforms ................................................................ 25 Non-government institutions ............................................................................... 26 The party face of presidentialization ................................................................ 27 Media personalization .......................................................................................... 28 Controlled media .................................................................................................. 28 Uncontrolled media ............................................................................................... 31 Behavioral personalization ................................................................................... 33 Voters .................................................................................................................... 33 The use of preferential voting .......................................................................... 35 Politicians .............................................................................................................. 37 Campaign behavior........................................................................................... 37 Parliamentary behavior .................................................................................... 40 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 41 Chapter 3. Theoretical framework ............................................................................ 43 Defining personalized representation .................................................................. 43 Identifying different aspects of personalization .................................................. 47 Theoretical framework: When do we expect personalized representation? ....... 50 Societal developments: increased personalization over time .............................. 54 Individual characteristics: electoral security, pre-parliamentary party career, and personality ..................................................................................................... 56 Political institutions: electoral incentives and party control ............................... 58 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 60 Chapter 4. Research design and data ........................................................................ 61 Selecting indicators of personalized representation ............................................. 61 Operationalization of the three sets of theoretical explanatory factors............... 67 Societal developments ...................................................................................... 68 Individual characteristics ................................................................................. 68 Political institutions ......................................................................................... 70 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 73 5 Chapter 5. Overview of main findings ....................................................................... 75 How do societal developments influence the relationship between legislator and party? .............................................................................................................. 75 Personalization in British maiden speeches ......................................................... 77 How do legislator characteristics influence the relationship between legislator and party? .............................................................................................................. 79 Electoral security .............................................................................................. 79 Pre-parliamentary party career ........................................................................ 81 Personality traits ............................................................................................... 83 How do the political institutions influence the relationship between legislator and party? .............................................................................................................. 87 The political party ............................................................................................. 89 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 93 Chapter 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 95 Theoretical contributions and their implications ................................................. 95 (The lack of) evidence for personalization of representation ............................... 97 The role of individual characteristics and political institutions ......................... 100 Implications of findings ...................................................................................... 102 Appendix .................................................................................................................. 105 English summary ..................................................................................................... 109 Dansk resumé ........................................................................................................... 113 References ................................................................................................................. 117 6 Acknowledgement Writing a PhD is an emotional rollercoaster. One day you are on top of the world, enjoying interesting talks with your colleagues and feeling competent about what you do. The next day you encounter a new problem and are back to feeling incompetent again. It took me a long time to enjoy the process and find my way through. In other words, writing a PhD is no walk in the park, but it requires many walks in the University Park. Luckily, I was not alone on my many walks, and I have made friends for life at the Department of Political Science. I could never have done this PhD project without your help and ad- vice. The biggest thanks go to my supervisor Helene Helboe Pedersen and co- supervisor Anne Skorkjær Binderkrantz for reading and commenting on countless drafts, listening to all my frustrations, but most of all for creating an informal and safe space at our meetings and always treating me like an equal colleague. First, Helene, thank you for getting me into this research path, for inviting me into the research project, and for always believing in me. You have been with me all the way from my bachelor thesis, supervising my internship in the European Parliament and supervising my master thesis. If it was not for you, I had never done a PhD. Thanks for all your help and guidance through the years, for interesting discussions, and many funny moments along the way. Thank you, Anne, for your sharp and constructive comments. For always taking your time to chat with me and give your input along the way, and for being an important role model for me and many other young female scholars at the Department. In the fall semester of 2017, I had the pleasure of visiting Jennifer vanHeerde-Hudson at University College London. Thank you for inviting me to your research environment and for many memorable moments at our pro- ject meetings in Repstyle. The same thanks go to Rosie Campbell and Troels Bøggild. I have learned a lot from co-authoring our article, and you have all inspired me in my research. I cannot thank you enough. During my four years at the Department, I have accomplished something that only a few are able to: I have had the same office throughout my employ- ment as a PhD. Even though I have been away on research stay and maternity leave, office number 118 in building 1341 has always been my domain. Thanks to all of you on the aisle under the stairs with whom many mornings