psephology

psephology

Word of the Day for Toastmasters everywhere Sunday 14th February 2021 - Contributed by at easy-Speak.org Word of the Day - for Toastmasters everywhere Sunday 14th February 2021 psephology (noun) sef-OL-o-jee

The statistical study of elections.

Indeed, this became for a time a veritable obsession, giving rise in some academic circles to the idea of a whole new field of study, to be called ' psephology', and in the lower reaches of political communication to the massive television coverage of national elections, in which precise calculations of 'swings' from one party to another and predictions of the eventual outcome of the electoral contest tended to overshadow any serious discussion of the substance of political conflicts.

Tom Bottomore, Political Sociology.

However, given that there are three major parties in Britain - one of which comes fourth in a by-election - I understand that at least some of his speech had more to do with electoral psephology in parts of our country than pensions policy.

Malcolm Wicks, Hansard, 13 October 2004. Hansard

The vital statistics of the new and redrawn constituencies, and their implications for the competing parties, were set out some months ago by the Crick and Watson of forensic psephology, professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University.

David McKie, The Guardian, 3 May 2007. Guardian

But in his circuitous journey, the author frequently gets lost in the byways of sociology, the statistical study of elections known as psephology and German social history.

Walter Laqueur, The New York Times, 20 June 1982, New York Times reviewing Richard F. Hamilton's Who Voted for Hitler?

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