Une \'etude de physique sur les \'elections

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the spatiotemporal patterns of electoral results and turnout in French elections from 1992 to 2007, using models of local imitation and social influence to understand voter behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a model based on local imitation of agents and demonstrates how social influence can alter electoral choices.

Findings

Identified regularities in electoral results and turnout over time and space.

Showed that local imitation models can replicate observed voting patterns.

Illustrated how knowledge of others' choices affects individual decisions.

Abstract

We study spatiotemporal regularities of electoral results and turnout rates for each municipality (or polling station) concerning French elections between 1992 and 2007. We try to account for the data using models based on a simple imitation of agents in the vicinity. We also propose a model of an experiment that shows how choices are modified by knowing the choices of others agents.