This is a Master’s Thesis done by Tim Mahoney while at the LBJ School of Government Affairs at the University of Texas. Although it is from 1983, many underlying principles of the paper still ring true today.
This 1983 Master’s Paper, submitted as part of the requirements of the Master’s Degree Program of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, was not well understood, to say the least, at the time of its submission. The first reader (who was a guiding light for me while at the LBJ School) wanted me to write just a little more on one section, to which I finally refused because it was already three times longer than most LBJ School Master’s papers… and mine had already taken more than six months to research and write as a full time post-course work effort. The second reader, who I had recruited to review the Paper’s technical details in the regression equations that I had run from precinct data over multiple issue and candidate elections in a three-year period, said that he did not know what the data meant, but the “R” coefficients indicated that the information was “significant” (see page 180).
This Master’s paper consists of basically four sections.
The first section (including the 17 page Introduction) is an “Essay on Representation” going to page 56. It is still good information.
The second section is a history of Neighborhoods in Austin until 1982, consisting of pages 57 to 113.
The third section is heart of the paper (from pages 114 to 203), a statistical analysis of precinct results in Travis County in eight issue and candidate elections, from 1979 to 1982. It presents the heart of the new theory of the political spectrum and voter behavior. It asks the question rarely asked, what does a healthy culture look like?
Finally, the Footnotes, Appendix and the Bibliography contain a supplement to the other sections. The Bibliography contain period documents that are not otherwise available, which help explain the underlying movements of the voters that were invisible to the political professionals and pundits of the time, and beyond. The basis Regression formula is contained on page 128.
Tim Mahoney, Austin, Texas; December 2016
This is a very large file. (download it here)