Jean Chiche

The Candidates: Crystallized Images

The French presidential election is more intensely personalized than any other election in the country. This is undoubtedly why turnout is always higher than for any other election. Commented on through opinion polls that provide information throughout the campaign, the race between the candidates is passionately followed by French voters and all the more so when the final result is uncertain. Academic debate surrounding the personalization of politics and, more broadly speaking, the question of how voters feel about candidates has been around for a long time. During the 2007 election campaign, the qualities attributed to the candidates by voters fueled media coverage and contributed to the final scores obtained by the candidates on polling day. The media controversy surrounding Segolene Royal’s perceived competence or lack of same provides a good example of this. Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial personality also fueled a great deal of debate. During the campaign, a number of qualities and flaws were attributed to the main candidates which little by little contributed to the building of their public image. Analyses carried out on public opinion showed that these images differed palpably from one candidate to another and that they were influenced by campaign events. A given act carried out in public, a statement made or an attitude expressed shaped the candidates’ image either positively or negatively depending on how the public interpreted it.

The Decisive Influence of Image

There is no consensus in electoral sociology on the indicators and measurements of cognitive factors that are very often defined by the political awareness of voters (Hacker, 2004). Inspired by the work of George Marcus in particular, part of this type of research focuses on the role played by emotional factors in the determination of electoral choice. Work on the subject, which is on the borderline between analyses of political competence or awareness and political psychology, examines the explicative factors of voting behavior and the cognitive processes that lead people to vote. George Marcus’ work presents itself as an alternative approach to rational choice analyses and draws on the concept of the “affective intelligence” of voters defined as a mixture of reflex, emotional, and rational processes. According to George Marcus, the personality of the candidates as well as the mood and feelings aroused as the candidate becomes more familiar to the voter during the campaign are essential variables in the study of political awareness and opinions. He believes that citizens only manage to become familiar with what they feel to be likable and moving. The 2007 presidential election campaign in France provided a key moment to take these dimensions into account. The personality and image of the main candidates have rarely played such a central role or made it so necessary to take the voters’ “emotional intelligence” into account in explaining how their political opinions are shaped.