The French Voter Before and After the 2002 Elections

by Lewis-Beck, Michael S.

• ISBN13: 9780333994191
• ISBN10: 0333994191
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-18
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Why do French voters vote the way they do? In this book, leading international scholars examine this question from many different angles. Special attention is given to the 2002 national elections, when right-wing extremist Le Pen made such a spectacular showing in the presidential contest. Was the first-ballot success of Le Pen based on issues of law and order, ethnicity, nationalism or on the economy? What about the role of the traditional factors of social class, region, religion and left-right ideology? Do the peculiar electoral institutions of the Fifth Republic foster political extremism, or act as a break on it? The French Voter considers these issues both in relation to the 2002 contest and past elections.

Author Biography

Michael S. Lewis-Beck is the F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa.

Table of Contents

List of Tables, Figures and Maps	vii
Notes on the Contributors	xi
Preface	xv
French Election Theories and the 2002 Results: An Introduction	1	(11)
Michael S. Lewis-Beck
France's 2002 Presidential Elections: Earlier and Later Territorial Fractures	12	(21)
Annie Laurent
Do Issues Matter? Law and Order in the 2002 French Presidential Election	33	(14)
Nonna Mayer
Vincent Tiberj
Ideology and Party Identification: A Normalisation of French Voting Anchors?	47	(27)
Jocelyn A. J. Evans
``Old Wine in New Bottles? New Wine in Old Bottles?: Class, Religion and Vote in the French Electorate'' -- The 2002 Elections in Time Perspective	74	(19)
Bruno Cautres
Strategic Voting in the 2002 French Presidential Election	93	(17)
Andre Blais
Institutions and Voters: Structuring Electoral Choice	110	(16)
Robert Elgie
Could there have Possibly been Economic Voting?	126	(10)
Guy D. Whitten
Dual Governance and Economic Voting: France and the United States	136	(19)
Michael S. Lewis-Beck
Richard Nadeau
Stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place: Electoral Dilemmas and Turnout in the 2002 French Legislative Elections	155	(23)
Thomas Gschwend
Dirk Leuffen
Forecasting the 2002 Elections: Lessons from a Political Economy Model	178	(27)
Bruno Jerome
Veronique Jerome-Speziari
Vote Functions in France and the 2002 Election Forecast	205	(26)
Eric Dubois
Christine Fauvelle-Aymar
National Economic Voting in France: Objective versus Subjective Measures	231	(12)
Eric Belanger
Michael S. Lewis-Beck
Index	243