Publication Date

1974

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Czudnowski, Moshe M., 1924-

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Political Science

LCSH

Wallace; George C. (George Corley); 1919-; Presidents--United States--Election; Indiana--Politics and government

Abstract

The amount of previous scholarly attention to the Wallace vote has been extremely minimal. This thesis attempts to redress that imbalance in three ways. Firstly, a digest and synthesis of the extant literature is presented. Secondly, recent research has suggested that a linear model better accounts for the variance in voting for "normal" (e.g. Democratic and Republican) candidates, while a curvilinear model does so in voting for "radical" (e.g. Wallace) candidates. Therefore, in order to test this previously discovered, considered here hypothetical, pattern, a longitudinal analysis of the Wallace vote in Indiana in 1964, 1968 and 1972,using both models, is formulated and expedited. Attention is paid to the specific (Indiana) political culture and context within which this test is conducted. When the entire set of socio-demo graphic independent variables are used (12 in all) in the respective models, the hypothetical pattern does not hold up. The data set of independent variables was then divided into two subsets, one connotative of an economic-social welfare issue dimension, and the other of a racial-ethnic-educational dimension. The hypothesized pattern does not arise when the former subset alone is used in the respective models; but does so when the latter subset alone is used. These results seem to indicate that the radicalness of the Wallace vote occurs along a racial-ethnic dimension moderated by education; while along the economic-social welfare issue dimension, the Wallace vote's structure is like that of any other "normal" candidate. Moreover, given the Indiana political culture, a rural-urban intermediate classification scheme was discovered which cuts across the racial-ethnic "radical" dimension, further strengthening the results. Thirdly, these findings are placed into the larger context of recent research on the structure of American party-candidate-issue voting behavior. Using University of Michigan Survey Research Center sample responses solicited from the American voting population of 1968 and 1970, previous research indicated that two cross-cutting dimensions accurately portray that population's evaluations of past, actual, and/or prospective Presidential and/or Vice-Presidential candidates, including Wallace: an economic-social welfare, "normal," partisan dimension, and another composed of attitudes toward the "new social issues" of urban unrest, the plight of the cities, civil rights, Viet Nam, protest, and law and order. These results and the results derived here lend substantial support to the veracity of each other. Both these studies, in differing fashions, indicate a movement of Wallace over time toward the "center" of the perceptual political spectrum of the relevant respective populations. The Wallace vote, then, was discovered to indeed be a racial-ethnic based vote, a political fact which has serious implications for the Madisonian based system of American government. A Postscript to this thesis delineates what some of those implications are and what impact they may have on the conduct of American politics in the 1970's.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

vi, 132 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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