Abstract
Electoral sociology was born in the US after World War II. The survey of Paul Lazarsfeld and his team from the University of Columbia showed that the presidential campaign had little influence on voting. Political choices are not linked to perceptions of issues since few people change their voting intentions between successive waves of the panel study, few respondents mention issues as the cause for changing their voting intention, few people can identify candidate positions even on debated issues. Voters choose their candidate before the campaign and keep their initial choice. This choice is linked to their social and professional background. Three variables are important: social ad economic status, religion and place of residence. Social groups have a big impact. 77% of the 1940 respondents said that their parents and grandparents vote for the same party as they do. Many people refer to personal influence as the reason for changing their voting intention. The conclusion of the survey is, 'a person thinks politically as he is socially. Social characteristics determine political preference'.
