ABSTRACT
It is necessary to examine the attitudes of the legislators toward their jobs in parliament in order to understand the nature of the dimensions of their job and to examine the nature of the interactive relationship between the MPs and their constituents. This chapter argues that legislators in Sri Lanka do not "choose" the type of legislator they will be, as has been argued about legislators in the United States (Davidson, 1969:188-89; Jewell and Loewenberg, 1979; 485). Instead, Sri Lankan legislators find that the formal distribution of authority in the parliament structures the work that they do in parliament and strongly affects their attitudes about their jobs. Despite this structuring of the attitudes and jobs of the legislators, they still focus their activities toward their constituencies and many consider this to be important. This is a necessary part of an interactive relationship between the legislators and their constituents.
