Legislator-Constituency Relations and the Representative Process

Research on representation in legislatures takes the following forms: normative and theoretical studies; empirical studies of the representative character of legislative bodies and the relationship between legislators and their variously defined constituencies; studies of public expectations of and support for the legislature; and examinations of the service, allocation, and policy responsiveness of representatives, which include methodological problems of measuring congruence between the views of constituents and the action of representatives.