The Political Consequences of poverty in France and USA

The first political effect of poverty (in France, the notion of precariousness is related to that of poverty whereas in the US, the opposition between precarious and insecure jobs is irrelevant) is to divert the vote, to favor the withdrawal of political participation. Despite this, in the US, the investigation realized after the California gubernatorial election on November 2014, shows that the majority of the respondents state a preference for the Democratic Party. In France, before the presidential elections in 2012, they state to want to be away from the right and the outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy in favor to the left or the National Front (the far-right). On the two sides of the Atlantic, they are for redistribution. However, we can not assert with Standing (2011) that poor people, united by their difficult living conditions, forms a class or consolidates a class membership. This study is based on the exploitation of a hundred interviews collected in France and about fifty in Oakland/ California.