Voting Behaviour

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to describe and analyse voting behaviour in the first and second ballots of the 1995 presidential election. For this purpose, two kinds of data are available. The first kind consists of very robust official election statistics1 (see Appendix 1). These may be disaggregated by place of residence, with detailed statistics for every region, department and commune (see Appendix 3). The second kind consists of rather less robust opinion polls and, in particular, exit polls.2 If the disadvantage of this second kind of data is that it is limited by the non-availability of disaggregated figures and the absence of a long time-series, its main advantage is that it answers questions directly relevant for reconsidering contemporary theories and models of French voting behaviour.