Why do French voters vote the way they do? In this book, leading international scholars examine this question from many different angles. Special attention is given to the 2002 national elections, when right-wing extremist Le Pen made such a spectacular showing in the presidential contest. Was the first-ballot success of Le Pen based on issues of law and order, ethnicity, nationalism or on the economy? What about the role of the traditional factors of social class, region, religion and left-right ideology? Do the peculiar electoral institutions of the Fifth Republic foster political extremism, or act as a break on it? The French Voter considers these issues both in relation to the 2002 contest and past elections.

ERIC BÉLANGER Department of Political Science, University of Montreal, Canada ANDRÉ BLAIS Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Montreal, Canada BRUNO CAUTRÈS Director, Bangue des Données Sociopolitiques, University of Grenoble, France ERIC DUBOIS University of Paris-I Panthéon Sorbonne, France ROBERT ELGIE Paddy Moriarty Professor of Government and International Studies, Dublin City University, Ireland JOCELYN EVANS Lecturer in Politics, University of Salford, UK CHRISTINE FAUVELLE-AYMAR Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Paris-I Panthéon Sorbonne, France THOMAS GSCHWEND University of Mannheim, Germany BRUNO JÉRÔME Department of Economics, University of Metz, France VERONIQUE JÉRÔME-SPEZIARI Department of Economics, University of Metz, France ANNIE LAURENT University of Lille, France DIRK LEUFFEN University of Mannheim, Germany NONNA MAYER Research Director, CEVIPOF, Paris Institute for Political Studies, France RICHARD NADEAU Professor of Political Science, University of Montreal, Canada VINCENT TIBERJ CEVIPOF, France GUY WHITTEN Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Texas A & M University, USA