Issue congruence between candidates' Twitter communication and constituencies in an MMES: Migration as an exemplary case.
How responsive are individual politicians to their constituents' issue priorities? While parties compete nationally, candidates must navigate varying local issue salience. We investigate whether candidates adjust their emphasis on migration to district-level priorities in Germany's mixed-member elec...
| Published in: | Parliamentary Affairs Vol. 79; no. 3; pp. 630 - 656 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Jul2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195378712&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195378712 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00312290 PAF jtl: Parliamentary Affairs issn: 00312290 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2026 vid: 79 iid: 3 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 195378712 10.1093/pa/gsaf033 ppf: 630 ppct: 26 formats: tig: atl: Issue congruence between candidates' Twitter communication and constituencies in an MMES: Migration as an exemplary case. aug: au: Wurthmann, L Constantin Sältzer, Marius affil: Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim, A5, 6, 68159, Mannheim, Germany Department of Social Sciences, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany su: Germany Twitter (Web resource) Germany. Bundestag Elections Internal migration Political campaigns Political accountability Representative government Election districts Voters sug: subj: Elections Internal migration Political campaigns Political accountability Representative government Germany Germany. Bundestag Election districts Voters Twitter (Web resource) keyword: copyrightHolder:Hansard Society copyrightYear:2026 inLanguage:en issue congruence mixed-member electoral system publisher:Oxford University Press representation sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsaf033 social media text analysis copyrightHolder:Hansard Society copyrightYear:2026 inLanguage:en issue congruence mixed-member electoral system publisher:Oxford University Press representation sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsaf033 social media text analysis ab: How responsive are individual politicians to their constituents' issue priorities? While parties compete nationally, candidates must navigate varying local issue salience. We investigate whether candidates adjust their emphasis on migration to district-level priorities in Germany's mixed-member electoral system. Using survey data on voter issue salience and over a million candidate tweets from the 2017 Bundestag election, we apply supervised classification to assess issue congruence. Our findings reveal that MPs elected by their district are significantly more responsive to their constituents' migration concerns than candidates elected via party lists. However, overall, candidates do not systematically align their communication with district-level preferences, suggesting that party strategies and electoral incentives shape responsiveness. These results underscore the role of electoral mandates in structuring political representation, highlighting the varying degrees of accountability in mixed-member systems. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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