Rage on Stage: Negative Campaigning as a Political Matter and as a Research Field

Abstract: Devoting a share of one’s campaign communication to attacking an opponent is a proven practice of candidates. Yet research on this practice in the field of political communication studies has not developed everywhere to the same extent. Empirical studies and concepts were initially studied widely in the United States, then later with renewed hypotheses in Europe, but are virtually non-existent in France despite attacks against opponents being clearly identified there as a recurring and sometimes intensive phenomenon, in particular in connection with partisan and ideological motives. The possible specificity of negative campaigning in France is discussed here, regarding how scholars are beginning to address this research field, as well as how the 2017 presidential election is studied as such, in the QdC special issue introduced by this article.