Abstract

Published more than a century ago, the Tableau politique de la France de l’Ouest sous la Troisième République has always represented a fundamental point of reference in electoral history studies. In spite of André Siegfried’s public recognition, looked upon with the devotion due to a founding father, in reality this early text has been very little used by French scholars of electoral phenomena. After analysing the reasons for this ambiguity, the article points out the main directions that historical, sociological and geographical research has taken in recent years. On both sides of the Alps. Stressing the usefulness of a profound rereading of the Tableau politique, taking into account the sensitivity to space that was characteristic of André Siegfried, it finally proposes, through a concrete example of the application of the method used in the 1913 volume, a possible way of renewing electoral studies.