French electoral institutions and the economic vote

The economic vote exists in France, as in other Western democracies. Little is known, however, about how this economic vote is conditioned by their el ectoral institutions, which have unusual and considerable variation. Here w e examine large survey data sets of French elections-legislative, president ial, and European-in order to test various institutional hypotheses. We fin d that economic voting is strongest in a presidential election under unifie d government. It is weakened when the election takes place under cohabitati on, or is of the second order. Further, it is neither strengthed nor weaken ed on the second ballot. Electoral institutions clearly affect the magnitud e and target of the economic vote. The French voter, in considering the eco nomy, appears more sophisticated than naive. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.