Sociological Determinants of Voting in the Local Public Space in Cameroon

Abstract

Electoral sociology, the subject of this study, appears to be a privileged framework for the exercise and understanding of theories of voting, and knowledge of the sociological determinant of voting, a line of thought created to understand electoral behaviour in Cameroon. In order to understand the related logics, a qualitative study was conducted based on a review of the political science literature on explanatory models of voting. Results of this study showed that electoral behaviour at the local level is no longer fixed and is not necessarily a function of political parties. Voters are more informed, more realistic and less predictable. This situation is sustained by the political context, as voters seem to be more aware of issues at stake because they are more directly concerned than in the past and feel solely responsible for their future and their fate with the disengagement of the State in most sectors of the Cameroon economy through decentralisation.