Next Sunday, French voters will be called to the polls for the first round of the Presidential elections. During the final days of the electoral campaign, we want to provide a meaningful overview and interpretation of the structure of issue competition in the French system. To this purpose, CISE has collected an original dataset through CAWI interviews on a representative sample of the French voting-age population. In particular, in this article we focus on the candidates’ credibility on different issues. Our data includes a set of nine valence issues, on which there is by definition a consensual agreement (Stokes 1963)....

The decision by Theresa May to call a snap election has gone against her. Despite remaining the largest party in Westminster, the Conservatives have fallen short of an absolute majority of seats, and a hung Parliament is the outcome of this election. Jeremy Corbyn has brought the Labour Party to 40% of the votes, the largest result since 2001. In a context characterised by the highest turnout since 1997 (69%), a massive shift back towards a two-party system has occurred: the UKIP has collapsed, the SNP has stepped back, and the Liberal Democrats have not bounced back after the...

The eventful and unconventional campaign for the French presidential elections (partly) came to an end on Sunday night. Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron (24,0%) and radical right Marine Le Pen (21,3%) of the Front National have both qualified for the run-off of the presidential election. Even though polls had predicted this results in the months coming to the election, it still constitutes a surprise. The outcome is historically close, and 4 candidates have gathered around 20% of the electorate, and both mainstream parties have been eliminated. After Macron and Le Pen, right-wing candidate François Fillon (20,0%) and radical left Jean-Luc...

Introduction: a perfect storm? Lorenzo De Sio, Vincenzo Emanuele, Nicola Maggini and Aldo Paparo Part 1 – Before the elections How Berlusconi could yet pull off the unimaginable Roberto D’Alimonte 2013 Italian Parliamentary Election Pre-Election Report Aldo Paparo Even in the Chamber of Deputies, the result is not to be taken for granted Roberto D’Alimonte The uncertainty of Monti’s electoral hold Roberto D’Alimonte The 2013 Senate lottery: Possible scenarios Aldo Paparo Part 2 – The electoral results The live coverage on the CISE website on election day CISE Turnout: An accelerated decline Federico De Lucia and Matteo Cataldi An electoral tsunami hits Italy: 50 provinces washed away from PD and PdL Matteo Cataldi and Vincenzo Emanuele The center-right and...

Four weeks ahead of the US presidential election, most polls report a 10-point Biden lead in popular vote intentions. But what is, in detail, behind such lead? In an age of issue competition, where vote choices are more and more structured by specific issues (a good example being Trump winning Rust Belt states in 2016 with his promise to bring back jobs to the US), what are the issues where Biden enjoys a competitive advantage? What are Trump's? Answers come from the exclusive CAWI survey we at CISE ran on a sample of...