Book review: double-ballot voting and results that models fail to predict: why the French election system is especially interesting to political scientists

This scientific survey of French presidential elections from 1988-2007 provides a new benchmark for the analysis of voting behaviour and election outcomes in presidential systems. Françoise Boucek finds that the book thus provides general evidence of change and continuity in contemporary French politics while avoiding French ‘exceptionalism’ which too often characterises volumes written by country specialists. French Presidential Elections. Michael S. Lewis-Beck, Richard Nadeau and Eric Bélanger. Palgrave Macmillan. January 2012.