201 ASR Forum: The Life and Work of Joel Barkan Legislatures and Democratic Development in Africa Robert Mattes and Shaheen Mozaffar Abstract: Afrobarometer data collected three decades after Joel Barkan’s pioneering survey of rural Kenyans confirm his insights that voters stress MPs’ linkage roles in terms of representation (carrying views upward to the capital) and constituency ser- vice (bringing goods downward from national government) over their institutional roles (lawmaking and oversight). And, contrary to conventional wisdom, they prefer collective goods for the constituency over private goods. An African Legislatures Pro- ject survey of 822 MPs in seventeen countries revealed, however, that MPs misinter- pret this as a demand for material goods and development and underappreciate the demand for representation, prompting—among other things—the adoption of con- troversial Constituency Development Funds. Résumé: Les données Afrobarometer recueillies trois décennies après l’enquête pion- nière de Joel Barkan sur le Kenya rural confirment son point de vu que les électeurs accordent de l’importance au rôle des membres du parlement (MPs) dans les liens parlementaires en matière de représentation (portant des vues vers la capitale) dans les services de circonscription (importation de marchandises vers le bas du gouvernement national) et sur leurs rôles institutionnels (législatif et de contrôle). Et que, contrairement aux idées reçues, ils préfèrent les biens collectifs de la circon- scription sur les biens privés. Un projet de sondage sur les législatures africaines—822 African Studies Review, Volume 59, Number 3 (December 2016), pp. 201–215 Robert Mattes is a professor of political studies at the University of Cape Town. He is the senior adviser to, and co-founder of, Afrobarometer, a regular survey of public opinion in thirty-six African countries. His research has focused on the development of democratic attitudes and practices in South Africa and across the continent. E-mail: robert.mattes@uct.ac.za Shaheen Mozaffar is a professor of political science at Bridgewater State University and a co-director of the African Legislatures Project. His research has focused on ethnicity, electoral systems, electoral management, and democracy in Africa. E-mail: smozaffar@bridgew.edu © African Studies Association, 2016 doi:10.1017/asr.2016.83 terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2016.83 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 168.151.164.21, on 29 Sep 2017 at 08:19:29, subject to the Cambridge Core