Standing for Re-Election Under Different Electoral Rules: Evidence from the Romanian Legislature

Abstract

What drives an incumbent legislator’s desire for re-election? Drawing on two MP surveys from 2003 and 2011, the paper seeks to answer this question. The bi-variate and multivariate statistical models focus on the explanatory power of a few individual variables: parliamentary experience and office, the decentralization of selection procedures, importance given to the parliamentary office, professionalization and career perceptions, while controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Our results indicate that the political career perceptions and the importance given to the parliamentary office are the key motivations to seek re-election, but their strength varies according to the type of electoral system. Similarly, other mechanisms seem to work chiefly in the PR closed list system (e.g. professionalization of the legislature) or within the SMD setting (e.g. being a frontbencher and age).