Comment les électeurs font-ils leur choix ?

In following the behavior of the same voters over the long term, and in interviewing them several times before, during, and after the election, this electoral panel study afforded the opportunity to trace the course of the vote—to accurately follow the evolution of the intentions, hesitations and the opinions formed about the candidates in the running—and in so doing, to better understand the dynamics of an election.

This collection reviews the results of the "French Electoral Panel," comparing a sample of 1,846 voters who were interviewed four times over the length of the French presidential and legislative elections of the spring of 2007. An achievement of the most eminent specialists in electoral studies in France at the core of the Center for Political Science Research at Sciences Po (Cevipof), this group inquiry examines the different facets of the process forming the electoral outcome: the moment of decision, voter hesitations, how the voter follows the campaign, the influence of the image, the crossing of party lines, the game of abstention, (re)bipolarization, and the reassignment of voters.

Specific chapters of the study offer analysis and answers to different questions concerning the evolution of the relationship between the French and the vote. They also bring light to the uniqueness of the 2007 presidential election in French electoral history.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1. The electoral process.
Chapter 2. Party loyalty, crossing party lines, and abstention
Chapter 3. The vote gap
Chapter 4. The influential image of the candidate
Chapter 5. When do voters decide?
Chapter 6. The campaign trail: politicization, affirmation, and polarization
Chapter 7. Fragmentation of the political agenda and the weakness of the issue vote.
Chapter 8. Le Pen voters' crisis of faith.
Chapter 9. The Bayrouist temptation.
Chapter 10. A campaign in review: from the crystal ball to political logic.
Chapter 11. The PEF (French Electoral Panel) 2007: issues of methodology.