Abstract
This chapter considers the impact on the voter-party relationship, particularly between the blue-collar electorate and the established left, of the greater political sophistication of voters resulting from the expansion of education and the media explosion. Having defined the concept of political sophistication, it analyses educational trends and levels of political interest in France. An index of cognitive mobilisation is constructed in order to analyse changes in levels of political sophistication. A typology of political mobilisation is applied to the French electorate breaking it down into aligned voters (cognitive and ritual partisans) and non-aligned voters (apartisans and apoliticals). This indicates a dramatic rise in non-alignment, particularly among the younger generations. In the case of the electorate as a whole there are more apartisans but among the blue-collar electorate there are more apolitical voters.
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Notes
- 1.
The CAP (Certificat d’aptitude professionnelle or Certificate of Vocational Aptitude) or the BEP (Brevet d’études professionnelles or Diploma in Vocational Studies). The CEP (Certificat d’études primaires or Certificate of Primary Studies) was discontinued in 1989. Before 1945, compulsory schooling finished at the end of primary school.
- 2.
Certains disent, en parlant de la politique, que ce sont des choses trop compliquées et qu’il faut être un spécialiste pour les comprendre. Êtes-vous tout à fait d’accord, plutôt d’accord, plutôt pas d’accord ou pas d’accord du tout avec cette façon de voir? [Some people say that politics is too complicated and you need to be an expert to understand it. Do you totally agree, tend to agree, tend to disagree or totally disagree with this view?]
- 3.
Est-ce que vous vous intéressez beaucoup, assez, peu ou pas du tout à la politique? [Are you very, fairly, not very or not at all interested in politics?]
- 4.
Correlations Interest in politics x HEQ: 1978: .341∗∗; 1988: .295∗∗; 1997: .189∗∗; 2002: .275∗∗; 2007: .206∗∗; 2012: .250∗∗ (Spearman’s rho: ∗∗ = .01 significance level). (Source: CEVIPOF).
- 5.
EVS question: When you get together with friends, would you say you discuss political matters frequently, occasionally or never?
- 6.
EVS question: How often do you follow the political news on the television, radio or in the press?
- 7.
To construct the cognitive mobilisation index, each variable was coded into four categories (Level of education: 1 = university; 2 = baccalauréat; 3 = some secondary; 4 = primary or less; Interest in politics: 1 = very interested; 2 = fairly interested; 3 = not very interested; 4 = not at all interested) with a combined total of 2–5 indicating high cognitive mobilisation and 6–8 low cognitive mobilisation .
- 8.
Correlations B/C / ALL
Cognitive mobilisation x HEQ: 1978: .648∗∗ / .812∗∗; 1988: .640∗∗ / .808∗∗; 1997: .632∗∗ / .824∗∗; 2002: .686∗∗ / .845∗∗; 2007: .680∗∗ / .812∗∗; 2012: .595∗∗ / .792∗∗
Cognitive mobilisation x Political interest: 1978: .860∗∗ / .812∗∗; 1988: .849∗∗ / .783∗∗; 1997: .807∗∗ / .697∗∗; 2002: .839∗∗ / .737∗∗; 2007: .818∗∗ / .719∗∗; 2012: .851∗∗ / .778∗∗ (Spearman’s rho: ∗∗ = .01 significance level). (Source: CEVIPOF).
- 9.
Correlations B/C / ALL
Party identification x HEQ: 1978: .068∗ / .092∗∗; 1988: −.016 / .118∗∗; 1997: −.005 / .099∗∗; 2002: −.005 / .077∗∗; 2007: −.015 / .063∗∗; 2012: . −.009 / .087∗∗
Party identification x Political interest: 1978: .434∗∗ / .447∗∗; 1988: .488∗∗ / .499∗∗; 1997: .513∗∗ / .473∗∗; 2002: .428∗∗ / .382∗∗; 2007: .330∗∗ / .397∗∗; 2012: .366∗∗ / .397∗∗ (Spearman’s rho: ∗∗ = .01 significance level). (Source: CEVIPOF).
- 10.
In addition to rituals, Petersson (1978) identified three other types: party activists, mavericks and passives.
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Marthaler, S. (2020). Political Sophistication. In: Partisan Dealignment and the Blue-Collar Electorate in France. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35465-7_6
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