On June 26, Victor Sokari, PhD candidate in Comparative Politics at ICS-ULisboa, will be the speaker for the SPARC Research Group Seminar on Constituency Service in a Multi-level Democracy: Comparing Patterns and Orientations in National and Subnational Legislatures in Nigeria. The event starts at 2:30 p.m., online (ID: 975 6636 2593, pass 124396).

Multi-level democratic structures in heterogeneous social formations have demonstrated capacity to accommodate varied regional expectations, thereby legitimizing political representation to a large extent. As a supply-stimulated service, constituency service has emerged as a core component of political representation, posing critical questions about how agents of political representation (national and subnational legislators) in fragile democratic systems leverage such legitimacy to improve citizens' livelihoods. This study investigates the supply and demand side of constituency service in multilevel democracies. Focusing on two states (Lagos and Kano States) in Nigeria’s federal system, it examines the structural and behavioral factors that shape constituency service among national and subnational legislators and citizens’ views and perceptions of it.  To that end, it will sequentially employ a multi-data approach, where qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with purposively selected national/subnational legislators, constituents, and relevant stakeholders, as well as ethnographic data from constituency offices, will allow for examining varying patterns and orientation towards constituency service. Quantitative data will be sourced from surveys with constituents to describe constituents’ perceptions of legislators’ level of service responsiveness. The study contributes to existing political representation theories by theorizing a within-system legislative service variation model, a hybrid representation theory, and a responsive ethnic patronage model to clarify how structural and behavioral factors shape constituency service in fragile multi-level democracies.