Acceso usuarios
Anne Muxel
The French can no longer be described as syste- matic voters. Intermittent voting has become the order of the day with the presidential election being the only one that continues to have broad appeal. In the 2012 presidential election, the strong level of turnout broke with the cycle of abstention that had characterized all mid-term elections during Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency. Nevertheless, compared to the 2007 presidential election, tur- nout decreased among all sections of the popula- tion. This article draws on recent electoral surveys conducted by the Cevipof to examine changes in electoral turnout according to the sociological and political characteristics of the different electo- rates. Comparing the last three presidential elec- tions (2002, 2007 and 2012), it evaluates the share of sociological and the share of political absten- tion. More broadly, this article reconsiders the principle explanations for turnout models, attemp- ting to make the diverse motives for voting versus non-voting understandable.
