Beyond the Second-Order Election Model in French Regional Elections

Details

Supervisors

Dupuy, Claire

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences politiques, orientation générale, à finalité approfondie

Abstract

enIn France, the degree of decentralisation has steadily increased for more than forty years, and surveys indicate that French citizens strongly support regionalisation. Yet voter turnout in regional elections remains extremely low and has declined over time. This study addresses this paradox by responding to recent calls in the regional and electoral studies literature. First, it adopts the theoretical framework of policy-feedback studies to develop a longitudinal approach to regionalisation. Second, drawing on 17 in-depth semi-structured interviews, it examines how citizens make sense of regionalisation. Third, by focusing on the French case, the study moves beyond the usual suspects and examines regionalisation where it has been implemented by political elites according to a utilitarian paradigm. The findings indicate that French citizens perceive regional elections as less important because the stakes are lower, thereby demonstrating the mechanism underlying the traditional Second-Order Election (SOE) model. Moreover, the regional policies distinctiveness matters more than their visibility in public discourse in shaping how citizens perceive the electoral stakes. Finally, strong support for French regionalisation appears to be driven less by satisfaction with the performance of regional authorities than by widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of the central state.