Second-Class Representatives or Work Horses? Committee Assignments and Electoral Incentives in the Scottish Parliament

Abstract

The Scottish Parliament was designed to break from the traditional Westminster model. Two major changes introduced in the Scottish Parliament were the use of the mixed-member proportional (MMP) system to elect representatives, and the creation of powerful legislative committees. This article links these two areas, by showing that there is a difference in the committee strategies of constituency MSPs and list MSPs, with list MSPs being more active on legislative committees than constituency MSPs. However, not all list MSPs follow the same strategy. As candidates are allowed to run for office both as a constituency candidate and as a member of the party list, I find that those list MSPs who ran for office exclusively on the party list are the most active committee members.