LEGISLATIVE SYSTEMS WITH ABSOLUTE PARTY DISCIPLINE - IMPLICATIONS FORTHE AGENCY THEORY APPROACH TO THE CONSTITUENT-LEGISLATOR LINK

This paper examines how the presence of absolute party discipline forc es one to re-examine some of the issues surrounding the constituent-le gislator link. With absolute party discipline, slack at the individual district level is determined by the policy choices of a political par ty, rather than by the choices of the individual legislator. This patt y discipline not only has implications for the representational effect iveness of individual legislators, but also results in the terms ''sla ck'' and ''shirking'' no longer necessarily being synonymous. The empi rical work shows that Canadian political parties engaged in wide scale shirking on the 1988 U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement.