Library of Electoral Behaviour
Overview
Much of the theoretical groundwork for the study of electoral behaviour was laid in a number of monographs that were published between the mid-1940s and late 1960s. With the expansion and establishment of the subfield came a proliferation of scholarly articles in professional journals. This collection brings together 66 articles which define the discipline, represent important new departures, or bring together the knowledge we have on a given subject.
Introduction
The history of the scientific study of voting behaviour (or
psephology) goes back almost a hundred years, but as an important and
often vibrant subfield of political science, it only took off during
the "behavioural revolution" after the Second World War. Today, the
field is well established and is considered part of the "core
business" of political science, enjoying links with other subfields as
diverse as party systems, European studies, and political
theory. Moreover, the study of voting behaviour is very much an
interdisciplinary exercise: Three of the most influential approaches
to the study of voting behaviour that inform the way political
scientists think about voting behaviour up to the present date -
Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet (1944), Campbell et al. (1960), and
Downs (1957) - borrow their fundamental concepts from sociology,
social psychology, and economics respectively.
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