ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Corsica profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union, and provides essential detail on history, electoral system, political parties and cleavages, and governments. Corsica was a territory of the Republic of Genoa from 1284. In 1755 independence was proclaimed and the Genoese were largely driven from the island. In 1768, sensing that they would never again be able to subjugate Corsica, the Genoese sold their claim to the French, who then invaded and ultimately conquered Corsica though only with a large number of reinforcements. Elections in Corsica involve a two-round system of modified party list proportional representation in which the first round serves to determine which lists can stand in the second round. In addition to the main French parties which run for the Corsican Assembly, there are local nationalist Corsican parties which vary in the demands for autonomy.
