Analysis and examination of theories of electoral behavior accompanied by critique (the process of winning in political campaigns

پژوهش ‎های جغرافیای سیاسی

Volume 9, Issue 3 - Serial Number 35, October 2024, Pages 169-197   

Document Type: مقالات علمی -پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/pg.2025.83036.1219

Authors

Vahid Sadeghi¹; Hadi Azami^{* 2}; Seyed hadi Zarghani²

¹PhD student in Political Geography, Department of Geography, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi, Iran

²Associate Professor of Political Geography, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi, Iran

Abstract

Electoral behavior is a context-specific and time-specific political action that has shaped the foundation of electoral democracy. As a result, it has been the subject of attention and analysis by scholars and theorists. One of the oldest theories in this regard has its roots in the Columbia School, where Lazars Feld and his colleagues perceived and articulated the matter at a local level, within the framework of collective variables. They argued that humans are social beings, and their political behavior can be described in terms of demographic factors such as gender, religion, region, social class, education, and other similar characteristics that form the basis for social stratification and the formation of social groups. From this perspective, when humans became social beings, their electoral behavior took shape within the boundaries of social groups. The analysis of electoral behavior progressed to the point where social psychologists, emphasizing partisan social identity, viewed political behavior as individual-centered and driven by psychological needs and motivations. However, the story did not end there. The theorists of political economy conceptualized humans as rational beings bound by their biological and livelihood needs, considering livelihood and the fulfillment of expectations and demands as the cause of electoral behavior. Following these three prominent theoretical approaches, theories of elitism, political communication, and electoral geography emerged, each attributing electoral behavior to political forces, media and proximity, and spatial needs, respectively. In general,

Keywords

political process; political beings; theories of electoral behavior; political power

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