Candidate Visibility in France and the United States

Abstract

Survey data indicate that French legislative candidates are more visible than United States congressional candidates to the electorates in their districts. However, candidate visiblity in the United States appears to be greater in a presidential election year than in off-years. It is greatly affected, also apparently only in presidential years, by the simultaneous presence of senatorial and/or gubernatorial candidates, who tend to eclipse the congressional candidates. When one controls for such institutional factors as the eclipsing phenomenon in the United States and the French multiparty system, levels of candidate visibility in the two countries tend to converge. French deputies' perceptions of the relative importance of their personal reputations and party affiliations in winning them votes appear to be better justified empirically than the corresponding perceptions of United States congressmen. However, French deputies do not behave in the Assembly consistently with their comparatively accurate perceptions, while United States congressmen tend to act in conformity with their less well founded perceptions.