Chapter 1: Pre-determined Issues in the 2012 Presidential election byGilles Finchelstein
Chapter 2: The Candidates: Crystallized Images by Daniel Boy, Jean Chiche
Chapter 3: Information Gathering and Campaign Following among Voters: The Paradox of Electoral Campaigns by Thierry Vedel
PART 2: Voter Mobility and Mobilization
Chapter 4: Electoral Turnout: Mobilization in all its Diversity by Anne Muxel
Chapter 5: Fluctuations on the Left by Flora Chanvril, Henry Rey
Chapter 6: Shifts in Voting Decisions on the Right: From a Centripetal Victory to a Centrifugal Defeat by Bruno Cautrès, Sylvie Strudel
Chapter 7: Fluctuations between the Left and the Right: Expressions of Protest that Benefitted François Hollande by Anne Muxel
Chapter 8: Fluctuations at the Center: a Short-lived and Fragile Breakthrough for François Bayrou by Pierre Bréchon
PART 3: Making a Voting Choice
Chapter 9: The Moment of Electoral Choice by Pascal Perrineau, Brice Teinturier
Chapter 10: The Impact of Issues on Electoral Choice by Dominique Reynié
Chapter 11: Narrowing the Gap in the Second Round or the ‘Referenda’ of the 6th of May 2012 by Jérôme Jaffré
PART 4: Expectations of the Incoming President
Chapter 12: Expectations of the New President by Mariette Sineau, Bruno Cautrès
Chapter 13: A Review of the First Hundred Days: a ‘Normal’ presidency at a Time of Unprecedented Crisis by Jérôme Fourquet
CONCLUSION by Pascal Perrineau
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pascal Perrineau is Distinguished Professor at Sciences Po Paris, France, and has advised numerous media and scientific projects. His research focuses mainly on electoral sociology, the extreme right in France and in Europe, and the new socio-political cleavages at work in European societies. He is the author of many works, including Le Vote normal (2012) and, with Dominique Reynié, Le Dictionnaire du vote (2001).
This edited volume is based on a highly original survey carried out between November 2011 and June 2012 among a panel of 6,000 voters. The panel was interviewed on 12 separate occasions about how and why they made their voting choices. The book focuses on how electoral choices are made and how these choices evolve during the short time-span of an election campaign. The analysis of the 2012 electoral result shows more than ever that voting choices are the fruit of interweaving timelines: the long term period that characterizes voters’ predispositions and their predictions of a possible scenario; the shorter period of time during which the campaign unfolds where those predispositions are either confirmed, called into question, or undone; and the moment when the final choice is made. This is the first time the electoral decision-making process during a French Presidential election has been systematically studied.