Q & a
What are the career prospects for a psephologist?
Psephology is the scientific analysis of political elections based on statistics. It uses compilations of voting records for elections of some previous years, public opinion polls, campaign finance information and similar statistical data. Based on this data, the psephologist infers the outcome of the public opinion manifested in the form of elections.
The sphere of study includes patterns of voting, swings in votes, the number of votes polled or percentage of total votes polled translating into the number of seats in the legislature, how much percent swing in the votes may lead to change in the government, what have been the traditional seats for any party or any candidate, etc. In this way, the role of a psephologist is very important for a vibrant democracy.
With so many television news channels as well as news magazines devoting reams of paper to elections, the psephologist suddenly is flooded with offers during and before elections. These days elections being held in one state or the other with regularity, psephologists are busy the whole year. Even otherwise, they are usually tied up with one or the other media group to write columns and articles pertaining to political science or sociology. Research agencies and institutions also employ psephologists.
JAYAPRAKASH GANDHI
jpgandhi@gmail.com
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