An assembly & analysis of election returns & related data from several large cities; a general description of the pol'al system of these cities is given, & the effect of the systems on electoral competition is assessed. There seems to be no single or compound indicator of electoral competition equally meaningful for all O's & all electoral systems, but `closeness' & `incumbency', despite their limitations, seem the best for the purpose. Ceteris paribus, electoral systems have some effect on competition - as evidenced in Kansas City & Cincinnati; however, such factors as nat'l party preferences, the pattern of local interests & local pol'al traditions appear to outweight that effect. One can note that non-partisan elections & incumbency often foster pluralistic pot of immobilism; also that party preference is at least as important an influence on electoral competition as is party org, though variations in org appear to be of great importance for other characteristics of city gov. IPSA.
Described are diff's in the US & GB approach to election studies before describing French electoral sociol. While US studies are influenced by soc psychol'ts & in GB by pol'al sci'ts, the French have been most influenced by geographers, & the terms `electoral geography' & `electoral sociol' are used synonymously. Andre Siegfried is the earliest writer in the field & posited direct & simple explanations such as division of property, pop groupings, occup, submission to the priest, & racial character, & simple causation. The main portion of the work in electoral sociology (ES) has been done since WWII. There are 2 monographs in the field: (1) by Francois Goguel INITIATION AUX RECHERCHES DE GEOGRAPIRE ELECTORALE gives a synoptic account of the theory & practice. 6 main factors are to be considered in a sci'fic study of the elections: SC's; econ systems; religion; spatial configuration of the pop; influence of groups such as masons, unions, & parties; & auto-determination of the electoral evolution (the elections determine the meaning of the elections). (2) SOCIOLOGIE ELECTORALE, in which Goguel has written in the first portion he doubts whether generalization is possible. The rest of the book by George Dupeux is a guidebook for res under 4 headings: res in PO-to him, election returns, professions of faith by the deputies, dep'tal documents, & press reports; religious geography; soc structure, including pop, movement, age, sex, occup, & some econ data; & local history. E. Labrousse's work, LA REVUE SOCIALISTE, is almost the only work on a national level outside of Goguel's. He also believes that the permanence of the tendencies still holds and changes are due to changes in econ structure. Since industrial property is the primary effect on pol'al behavior, the progress of Socialism is assured. Goguel's geography of elections from 1870-1951 considers the Right & the Extreme-Left to the exclusion of the intermediate Left. One of his conclusions is that the ExtremeLeft is made up of both Ur WC & Ru peasant. This ExtremeLeft stems from the anti-clerical 'Extreme-Left'. Another conclusion is that in modern industrialized France, the CenterRight & Center-Left finds little favor in comparison to France as a whole, but the 2 extremes have their greatest strength there. He also concludes that the parties of the Center have a majority in France which can only be maintained if it considers the needs & problems of industrialized France. The methods & techniques of ES may be classified as: those that deal with map construction, &, those that reject maps for some other methods of presentation. Goguel considers questions of map construction: what shadings & hatchings to use, whether to map delegates or votes, etc. Claude Leleu advocates the use of indices in analysis for cartographic representation using fewer maps. Pierre George studied soc & econ conditions in a commuter town near Paris using road maps & semi-circles. His conclusions include a relationship of occup's to voting for pol'al parties. Guttman scales have been used by Sauerwein & de Vulpian. Roger de Smet has used is in a study of Belgian workers, & concluded that the Socialist & Communist Parties in each region of Belgium group almost exclusively workers & employees. Charles Moraze criticized ES primarily on the basis that studies have sacrificed accuracy for simplicity, & sees the need for better tools in soc sci. Arambourou criticizes similarly & wishes to study small regions intensively in order to identify components. Neither of these authors discuss interviewing as a method. Goguel called for studies of abstentionism using a temporary schema which divides abstentionism into 2 causes: where nonvoting is evidence of perplexity or deliberate att, &, where nonvoting is due to such factors as illness, not knowing of the campaign, living too far from the polls, etc. Jean Pataut distinguishes 3 sorts of abstentions: (a) necessary as a result of illness, change of address, etc: estimated at about 10%; (b) as a result of communication, pop characteristics, tradition, & other local characteristics. This is influenced by choice & will vary from place to place; & (c) pol'al factors may bring a rash of nonvoting. Roger Girod's study (N=50, based on interviews) of abstention in Switzerland postulates that both personal & collective factors are operating. Since abstaining is relatively stable in various Cantons, he concludes that abstention is primarily a function of the group. There are 3 studies of the feminine vote using Leleu's indices. Comparisons show that women abstain more than men & vote for most parties less than men with the exception of the MRP & some right-wing Cath groups. The greatest part of the women vote like the men of their class. It is concluded that work in French ES has been in spite of the methods employed,& the better short studies have used r techniques & detailed interviews. It is believed that the limitations are in the method. Working with gross data, the experimenter is unable to perform simultaneous breakdowns because he does not know how these variables actually _E among individuals. The facts of the French party system do not make his task easier. If French ES could add the soc psychol'al approach used in the US & GB to their studies of environmental forces, they could give a better picture of elections. In return, French studies have substance & methods which we in the. US could use. J. D. Twight.
Voting behavior is a function of many factors, one of which is the structure & operation of the electoral system. The history of California's cross-filing system provides an unusual opportunity to test this concept. The original cross-filing amendment increased pol'al non-partisanship in the state as was intended. The 1952 amendment was intended to increase party loyalties in the primaries, & it succeeded. The Hawson Amendment provision for disqualification of a candidate after the votes are counted is a clear case of an electoral system's negating the will of the voters. The system did not favor one pol'al party consistently. Rather the party out-of-power or losing favor with the voters was able to achieve a signif'ly larger % of cross-filed elections than contested elections. The system has been an influential but flexible instrument within which other factors affecting voting behavior have also operated. AA-IPSA.
The US is seeking a new party system. Neither the Democratic (Dem) Party nor the Republican (Rep) Party appears to be deserving of the confidence of the electorate, & especially not that of the independent voter who is the result of prosperity. The results of the Nov, 1956 elections show that if there exists an Eisenhower myth, as there did a Roosevelt myth, the identification of Eisenhower with the Rep Party has not come about. If Eisenhower has defeated the opposition at the national level, the Dem Party has succeeded in defeating the Rep Party in local elections. However, this Dem majority has itself changed in makeup: it is no longer dependent upon the public. By 1931, this shift in PO was already obvious. President Roosevelt, who replaced the traditionalist Hoover, decided that the recognition of the USSR posed no problems that could not be solved through diplomatic negotiations. He entered into discussions with Litvinov on the limiting of Communist propaganda in US territories & on the granting of freedom of belief to US citizens in the USSR. Once these problems were resolved, recognition of the USSR ensued, & the opponents of this policy were effectively silenced by this event. In another sense, the panic of 1929 destroyed the belief of Americans in the supremacy of their nation over that of the USSR, a belief which was founded not upon the equilibrium of forces but upon arbitrary moral judgments, & the panic forced the US to solve the Soviet problem in a realistic fashion (in terms of power). Tr by J. A. Broussard from IPSA.
The doctrine that party systems are determined by electoral systems (here labelled, for convenience, the 'Duverger doctrine [DD]) is now widely rejected; yet it is rarely wholly abandoned. This inconsistency is due to a confusion between theorizing & model-analysis. The DD is usually regarded as a psychol'ly attractive theory, but one which fails to explain how party systems are determined because in reality they are determined by many more factors than the DD takes into account. But the truth is that the DD is defective as a logical model. A revised form of the doctrine is formulated which is logically adequate & which does seem capable of furnishing at least a partial theory of bipartism. The method adopted & the concepts involved in this analysis may also suggest profitable liners fnr further res. AA_TP.SA. Adapted from the source document.
The aim of a 1951 London conference of a commission of the Int Polit Sci Assoc in discussing 17 reports from 15 nations on the political role of women was to 'provide a preliminary survey of the problem which could serve as a basis for a more detailed investigation' In Norway, France, Yugoslavia and the Federal Republic of Germany to be undertaken by UNESCO during 1952-53. The discussion presented was first oriented to the following working hypotheses put forward by Mr. Duverger: (1) more women than men are non-voters; (2) women vote less consistently than men; & (3) women tend to vote for the more conservative parties than men. Other topics presented are: (1) women's part in electioneering; (2) the extent of special party appeals to women; (3) the numerical importance of women as candidates and members of Parliament and of Government; (4) party attitudes to women's participation in legislation and government; (5) the influence of electoral systems on women's representation in Parliament; (6) the extent of women's direct and indirect influence on national political life; (7) the influence of domestic ties; & (8) psychol and financial obstacles to women's participation. Mr. Duverger suggested that serious study of these questions would be facilitated by the institution of separate ballots for men and women. D. Wolsk.
The anti-Semitism of the Nazis during the period of their struggle for power has usually been treated as a problem in soc psychol or intellectual history: it has been explained in terms of resentments & frustrations of the German people or Nazi leaders or in terms of the influence of racist authors. But there are elements of central importance which emerge only when the problem is considered from a pol'al point of view which takes account of the conditions of electoral competition in a multi-party system of Weltanschauung parties. An examination of Hitler's writings & speeches shows that he believed it necessary for the success of his movement to gain the support of workers, the lower Mc, officials, & business leaders & at the same time to develop a distinctive ideology on which a fanatical cadre could be built. With an electorate accustomed to the Weltanschauung party, he desired to make appeals to diverse SE groups to gain electoral victories without seeming merely opportunistic. In anti-Semitism he found a technique which could be used to reconcile on the ideological level the contradictions between his blatant econ appeals to groups with quite divergent econ interests, & could also provide the basis for a fanatical mass movement. It was not so much that anti-Semitism was popular in itself - some observers have maintained that on balance it constituted a liability in scaring away respectable support -- it rather gave a superficial consistency & plausibility to the inconsistent appeals of an unprincipled opportunism. AA.
