An original and comprehensive study of the sociological and psychological forces driving individual choices in French Presidential elections. Based on a unique comparative analysis of four French presidential contests over the last two decades, this book presents a rigorous examination of long-term and short-term voter motivations.

Introduction Social Structure Class and Patrimony Left-Right Ideology The Role of Issues Leader Images Campaign influences Conclusion Appendix Bibliography

MICHAEL S. LEWIS-BECK is F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa, USA. His interests are comparative elections, forecasting, political economy and quantitative methodology. He has authored or co-authored over 180 articles and books, including American Voter Revisited, Forecasting Elections, Economics and Elections: The Major Western Democracies, The French Voter: Before and After the 2002 Elections and Applied Regression: An Introduction.

RICHARD NADEAU is Professor of Political Science at the University of Montreal, Canada. His interests are voting behaviour, public opinion, political communication and quantitative methodology. A Fulbright Scholar and a former chief advisor to the Prime Minister of Quebec, he has authored or co-authored over 120 articles, chapters and books including Unsteady State, The Anatomy of a Liberal Victory, Citizens and Le Comportement Électoral des Québécois.

ÉRIC BÉLANGER is Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University, USA. His research interests include Quebec and Canadian Politics, political parties and party systems, public opinion and voting behaviour. His research has been published in numerous scholarly journals. He is also the co-author of Le Comportement Électoral des Québécois.