French presidential elections

About this book

French Presidential Elections is an original and comprehensive study of the sociological and psychological forces driving French voters' choices. Based on a unique comparative analysis of four French presidential contests over the last two decades, the book presents a rigorous examination of the long and short-term motivations that have played a key role in French voters re-electing the Socialist Fraṅois Mitterand in 1988 and bringing the right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy to power in 2007. In doing so, the authors address many questions central to an understanding of contemporary French politics, including the effects of the double ballot system on key patterns of electoral behaviour, the evidence of change or continuity in contemporary French politics, and the relative contributions of short and long-term determinants of French voting behaviour in presidential elections. The authors conclude by examining the extent to which electoral behaviour in France is distinct from that observed in other mature democracies.