ABSTRACT
A citizen moving from one country to another may thus find it difficult to acclimatise to the relationship between citizen and the members of the national legislature. The culture is well developed in countries such as Ireland and the United Kingdom. Our hypotheses help further our understanding of the relationship between citizens and parliaments in western European countries. The potential to contribute to greater confidence in the elective process reinforces the value of the exercise. Even if the potential is not realised, the exercise nonetheless has some value to citizens. A similar situation developed after 1998–99, following the election of a Northern Irish Assembly, Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly. In some countries, the citizen-Member of Parliament (MP) relationship is well developed, but in no case does it appear to be problem free. If a country wishes to develop strong constituent-MP links, then we believe we have indicated the way forward.
