Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-40).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Köln.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1983. / Pref. signed: Cees van der Eijk, Kees Niemöller. Summary in Dutch: p. 429-434. Includes index of authors mentioned in text. Includes bibliographical references (p. 357-384).

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Generalized Spectral analysis of approval voting data uses representation theory and the symmetry of the data to project the approval voting data into orthogonal and interpretable subspaces. Unfortunately, as the number of voters grows, the data space becomes prohibitively large to compute the decomposition of the data vector. To attack these large data sets we develop a method to partition the data set into equivalence classes, in order to drastically reduce the size of the space while retaining the necessary characteristics of the data set. We also make progress on the needed statistical tools to explain the results of the spectral analysis. The standard spectral analysis will be demonstrated, and our partitioning technique is applied to U.S. Senate roll call data.

Mathematical concepts have aided the progression of many different fields of study. Math is not only helpful in science and engineering, but also in the humanities and social sciences. Therefore, it seemed quite natural to apply my preliminary work with set intersections to voting theory, and that application has helped to focus my thesis. Rather than studying set intersections in general, I am attempting to study set intersections and what they mean in a voting situation. This can lead to better ways to model preferences and to predict which campaign platforms will be most popular. Because I feel that allowing people to only vote for one candidate results in a loss of too much information, I consider approval voting, where people can vote for as many platforms as they like.

This dissertation investigates the important role attitudes play in determining the participation levels of a large number of Americans. Over the past 30 years the prominent theories in the political participation literature have stressed the importance of socioeconomic status in explaining voter turnout. More recently, some have suggested that voting is a habit that most Americans acquire over their lifetimes. I contend that this previous work is incomplete in that it overlooks a large segment of the public that I describe as sporadic voters. Using National Election Study panel data from the early 1970s and 1990s, I find that neither socioeconomic status nor habit explains the voting behavior of sporadic voters. Sporadic voters decide to participate in elections based on their political attitudes at the time of any given election. If they have stronger partisan attachments, greater campaign interest or more external efficacy sporadic voters will be more likely to show up at the polls regardless of changes in education, age or income.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-127). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 139 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Herbert F. Weisberg, Dept. of Political Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-139).