The French Electoral Panel 2002

The 2002 elections in France have been a unique occasion to study the French voter in a dynamic perspective. With two elections (presidential and legislative) in a few weeks sequence of time, the analysis of the dynamics of political choice and voting was requiring a special design. Two research teams (the CEVIPOF in Paris and the CIDSP in Grenoble) and a private political expertise agency (the CECOP) have joined their efforts to conduce the biggest electoral study ever done in France, the Panel electroal francais 2002 (the "PEF 2002"). With a support from the Ministere de l'Interieur and the Fondation nationale des Sciences Politiques, the PEF 2002 is a three waves panel study of the French voter in the context of the 2002 campaigns and elections. The overall sample of the French electorate is more than 10 000 individuals from which 1822 have been interviewed two times and 1413 three times. The paper presents an overview of this unique study.