The Dilemma of the Undecided

Abstract

The article considers the question of the «undecided» category used in public opinion polls, more specifically in the pre-election ones. The author wonders how to disaggregate this broad and ambiguous category to achieve some kind of semantic consensus to refer to it. She concludes that the issue can be tackled from two different, but complementary, perspectives. First, through a methodological or analytical study of the issue which seeks to treat methodologically those who can’t or don’t answer and tries to get the answers in the questionnaires as faithfully as possible. Second, through the study of the political consequences of the undecided for the institutional system, i.e. the undecided as an expression of the disenchantment with politics.