VOTING-BEHAVIOR

Voting behaviour belongs to classic topics of political sociology. The paper deals with the history of its research and the most influential theoretical models. The research of voting behaviour began in the 19t h century - by journalist surveys in American presidential elections. A more rigorous research of voting behaviour started in 1935 when Geor ge Gallup established American Public Opinion Research institute. Stri ctly scientific approach to the voting behaviour study is represented by explanatory research. They are two kinds of this research: the firs t rests on the election statistics' analysis (elections studies) and t he second one on the variety of the voting behaviour empirical researc h. The representatives of the first approach are French demographers A . Siegfried and F. Goguel who established scientific school known as ' 'voting geography school''. The representatives of the second approach are American and European sociologists, psychologists and political s cientists as P. F. Lazarsfeld, B. Berelson, A. Cambell, S. M. Lipset, S. Verba, N. H. Nie, J. Petrocik, H. Himmelweit, A. Heath, G. Marshall , etc. Their research (executed mainly in the USA and UK) has aimed at construction and testing various explanation models of voting behavio ur. The most well known models are economic, ideological, sociological and socio-psychological ones. Economic models draw from the rational choice and public choice theories of political and voting behaviour of A. Downs, K. Arrow, J. Buchanan, etc. These authors suggest that voti ng represents a form of rational decision making that involves the cho ice based on a full understanding of the issues. The next versions of rational choice theory maintain that people simply vote for any party that seems most likely to maximise their material well-being. Ideologi cal model links voting to a social class and class ideology. Sociologi cal model or ''social group theory of voting'' explains election behav iour with political alignment of economic classes, religious blocs and next social groups. Social-psychological, or ''Party identification m odel'', suggests that voting patterns in elections are primarily assoc iated with the socioeconomic factors. These factors create the basis o f party loyalty by long-term political socialisation rather than it is moulded by the party political campaigns at election time. This model also focuses on the social correlates of voting and the lack of under standing the political issues among the most voter except the most imp ortant ones. The author also introduces the next voting behaviour mode ls, for example interactionist model, model of irrational behaviour, e tc.