Resumen de Parliamentary current questions’ constituency focus under times of crisis: an examination of the Greek case

Yani Kartalis

• Do macro-economic conditions affect legislators’representative focus? Thisarticle examines this novel predictor by analysing an original dataset ofparliamentary questions from the Greek parliament. Greece is a veryinformative case since not only is it one of the countries most severely hit bythe Eurozone Crisis but it also offers an institutional setting that providesplenty of incentives to re-election-seeking actors for constituency-focusedrepresentative work. The data utilised covers an extended period of six Greeklegislatures and over 12,000 parliamentary current questions asked pre,during and post-crisis between 2006 and 2019. The stand-alone effect ofmacro-economic conditions as well as its interaction with known predictorslike the legislators’vulnerability is tested. Findings provide evidence thatbetter national economic performance conditions increase the likelihood thatMPs with table current questions about their constituency, although othertraditional factors like electoral vulnerability remain importan