From The People’s Choice to the Social Media Voting Platforms. The 2014 Romanian Presidential Elections and the Sociological Construction of Voting Decisions
From The People’s Choice to the Social Media Voting Platforms. The 2014 Romanian Presidential Elections and the Sociological Construction of Voting Decisions

Summary/Abstract: In several studies from the 1940s and 1950s, Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and William McPhee developed one of the most famous and provocative models of the electoral behavior – the Columbia model. Their empirical researches, that were conducted on two different communities, in two different electoral moments, led to similar conclusions, according to which the social context (the group of affiliation) exercises the main influence in the process of forming voters’ political options. This paper aims to discuss the theories advanced by the Columbia model, by linking them to the development of the communication technologies in the last few years (especially those regarding the social media). Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to use some of the conclusions advanced by Lazarsfeld and his collaborators based on their theories in order to prove that, even after half a century (period during which the way of making and understanding politics has substantially evolved), the Columbia model remains relevant and is able, in many cases, to overcome many of the limitations of the economical and psychological explanatory models of voting behavior. In order to better articulate our research inquiry, the paper will present a case study – the Romanian presidential elections from 2014.

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