Les logiques spatiales du vote corse lors des scrutins régionaux et européens 2003-2005, héritage et renouvellement des comportements électoraux

As an island, Corsica is a finite territory where various political representations and power structures coexist, from the local to the European level. For this reason, Corsica is an important laboratory for electoral analysis. Indeed, an analysis of the voting areas in Corsica illustrates how these...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Luc Merchez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université de Reims Champagne-Ardennes 2007-09-01
Series:L'Espace Politique
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/espacepolitique/541
Description
Summary:As an island, Corsica is a finite territory where various political representations and power structures coexist, from the local to the European level. For this reason, Corsica is an important laboratory for electoral analysis. Indeed, an analysis of the voting areas in Corsica illustrates how these places still have insular logics and also to what extent they are able to integrate with continental logic, whether national or European. The aim of this paper is to analyse the mapping of corsican votes and to show their level of coherency or discontinuity for each poll from 2003 to 2005 (i.e. in chronological order : the referendum of July 6 2003 on the modification of the institutional organization of Corsica, the regional election of March 21 and 28 2004, the european election of June 13 2004 and the referendum on the European constitution on May 29 2005). The differences between regional and european elections leads one to think that the voting logics differ. Conclusions can be drawn from the various representations at the municipality (commune) scale. In addition to the multiple maps showing these results, spatial variations in the corsican vote can be ascertained whatever the different stakes of the polls. The electoral results showing the persistence of clannish behaviours will be highlighted in particular. The corsican clan system of clients and notables -however significant in the elections -gives birth to idiosyncrasies in every type of vote. The village remains the fundamental centre of personal identity, and local discontinuities are visible even for elections of european interest. On the other hand, this analysis reveals some exceptions to these traditional clannish patterns; that is to say identity-defined votes (regionalist/nationalist) and also votes which show a greater individualization of the public opinion (abstention, interest driven votes). These electoral behaviours are closer to average national voting strategies and are more evenly distributed on the island.
ISSN:1958-5500