Generational changes in the role of party identification in French political behavior since 1958
Abstract
In light of the growing wave of democratization, there is a renewed academic interest in seeking answers to the questions of whether and how institutions matter in public opinion. If scholars have been interested in newly democratizing states, little attention has been paid to consolidated democracies, such as France, which presents a long tradition of partisanship and a variability of institutions. The aim of this dissertation is to assess whether political choices are pre-structured by the institutional setting in which the mass population evolves. If political institutions shape the foundations of mass public opinion, changes in institutions would affect the basic party dispositions of younger cohorts of voters while not affecting the older generations in a similar way. A cohort analysis shows that the general level of partisanship in France has increased since the beginning of the Fifth Republic. Simultaneously, generational changes have taken place: new entrants, under on a specific set of political and social circumstances, adopt a different party identification than previous generations.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
McCann, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Political science
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