Contenu du sommaire : Le comportement politique. Etudes comparatives réunies et présentées par Mattei Dogan

Angus Campbell : In search of a model for comparative electoral psychology. The concept of political orientation is proposed as a device for the comparative analysis of the vote and related attitudes and acts of national electorates. Party identification and involvement in politics are treated as the direction and intensity dimension of this basic attitude toward the world of politics. In the two-party American system strong identification is shown to be correlated with high involvement, a relationship which suggests a series of hypotheses regarding the votes and attitudes of individual citizens and the characteristics of the collective vote. An attempt is made to apply a similar construction to political attitudes in the multiparty systems of Western Europe. Survey data from Finland, France, Norway, and Sweden reveal consistent relationship between party identification and strength of political involvement. Suggestions are offered for further analysis of the attitudes and behavior of the adherents to the respective parties in these and other multiparty countries.

Robert E. Lane : Adolescent political maturation in the United States and in Germany. On the basis of data from national sample surveys in the United States and Germany, the author constructs a typology of family Influence in adolescence: (1) influentials, (2) rebels, (3) submissives. There are proportionately more Influentials and Rebels in the United States and more Submissives in Germany. In both countries greater education and affiliation with Protestant churches are associated with a sense of appropriate influence, while submissive attitudes are encouraged by less education and Catholicism. In the United States it seems that shared parental control is associated with a greater sense of influence. Submissives in both countries participate less in politics than others, and, more importantly, Rebels participate less than Influentials. In Germany but not in the United States, Rebels are more likely to follow their parents political tradition than are Influentials, a phenomenon interpreted as possibly reflecting adult guilt over youthful rebellion,

Dwaine Marvick : Party cadres in Germany. This essay describes a systematic interview study of 365 Munich party cadres ? their activities in and perspectives toward the September 1965 election campaign. Both city-level SPD and CSU party leaders and spokesmen and district-level party functionaries and activists were studied, and a cross section survey of the Munich electorate was also included. Attention was first directed to milieu determinants ? the electoral topography of each campaign arena, the organizational difficulties in sustaining control and communications, the constraints on strategy accepted by rival contenders as « rules of the game ». Next, some measures of cadre performance are considered, both those affecting a party's internal flexibility and those characterizing a party's electoral impact. Finally, ideological militancy was shown to cause activists in varying degree to feel psychologically « distant » from the electorate, from daily associates, and from party colleagues.

Richard Rose : Social classes and political parties in Great Britain : an historical perspective. Since the days of Karl Marx, England has been regarded as preeminently the country in which class should provide the basis of political divisions, especially in the absence of large coloured, linguistic, regional or religious minorities. Yet after passing through the crises of industrialization and the democratization of the franchise in the 19th century, there was still no working-class party. The gradual rise of the Labour Party since 1900 has been marked by two factors. 1) A lagged response to Labour among working-class electors because of the consequences of inter-gene- rational transmission of party loyalties. This proposition about voting in the past is supported by survey data from the present. 2) A readiness of traditional elites to assimilate working-class leaders into the existing regime, and the desire of such leaders to alter themselves, rather than the basic structure of society. Analysis of contemporary elite data indicates that assimilation of Labour leaders continues on the basis of a shared professional class training.

Jean Blondel et Robert Hall : Political behaviour towards local authority in two British communities. One often speaks of the disaffection of the masses towards local political life. In fact, the analysis of citizen's attitudes in two British communities, one of average size, the other small, does not appear to confirm this disaffection. An important majority of subjects questionned during the inquiry state that they are ready to participate in collective actions if it becomes necessary, a very large majority also state that the influence the political system allows them to have is satisfying. The judgments made on the structure of the local administration and on the personnel, be it elected or appointed, are more mitigated : but it is important to note that the rates of satisfaction increase with the politisation and participation : the most politised citizens express the less cynicism. Lastly abstention in local elections seems linked rather to national forms of political participation than to purely local criteria of participation.

François Chazel : The panel method and its application to the French political system. Methodological presentation of the panel, drawing attention to the interest of this method for thorough analysis of change, its nature and its elements. Short history of its application to electoral decisions insisting on the value of certain results and the interest of the perspectives thus opened. Lastly, the A. endeavors to show that the particularities of the French political system do not rule out the use of the panel and that its application could lead to a realistic study of the French citizen, and the process of influence to which he is subjected.

Mattei Dogan : Political behaviour and social class in Italy. The relationship between social classes and political parties are analyzed by ecological and survey data. The main aspects considered are : the working class vote in big cities; the working class conservatism; the agricultural political diversity; the stratification of the votes by size of localities; political contrasts in agricultural milieux; influence of the educational level upon the vote; class consciousness and political opinion. Then, an analysis of the shifts in the social bases of communism between 1946 and ]963, explained by the psychological consequences of economic development and by migration as an ideological vector. In conclusion, the formulation of a new concept : social and political ataxia.