READING ASSIGNMENT:
"Percentages," in Hans Zeisel, Say
It With Figures(N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1968), pp. 15-27.
The Problem
"A Democratic presidential nominee received an absolute majority of the popular vote only twice from
1948 to 1976, and only once was there a decisive Democratic victory--Johnson's in 1964. Adding up all
of the presidential votes cast from 1948 through 1976, one sees the Republicans actually leading the
Democrats, 271 million to 256 million. It is not surprising, considering this, that the presidential coalitions
came to differ very substantially from those formed in other contests."
[see: Everett Carll Ladd, "Shifting Coalitions--1930s to 1970s",
p. 135.]
Has the election of President Clinton in 1992 and his re-election in 1996
helped to restore the Democratic coalition in American politics?
To answer this question, compare the Democratic vote in the 1988,
1992, and 1996 presidential elections.
If the elections of Bill Clinton represent a restoration of the New Deal
majority, we would expect to see:
- a majority of the popular vote going to Bill Clinton; or
- a substantial increase in the percentage of votes cast for the
Democratic candidate betwen 1988 and 1996.
OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of this assignment are:
- to read a codebook;
- to open a SPSS system file;
- to generate a frequency distribution;
- to present data in a table; and,
- to write about data.
ASSIGNMENT
- Select two variables: presidential vote, and party identification from
three presidential elections (i.e., 1988, 1992, and 1996) as
dependent variables.
- generate a frequency distribution for each presidential election;
- organize the data into a table for presidential vote and a table
for party identification;
- write a brief paper describing your findings based upon your data
explaining the changes in presidential vote and party
identification you see over those three elections.
Sample Table
Table 1
Presidential Vote by Party, 1976
and 1980 |
| PARTY | 1976 | 1980
|
| Democratic | 50.2% | 39.4% |
| Republican | 47.9 | 50.8 |
| Other | 1.9 | 9.8 |
| TOTAL | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| (N) | (1663) | (972) |
Elements of a Table
- Each table has a TABLE NUMBER (using arabic numerals).
- Each table has a TITLE that describes the data presented.
- Rows and Columns are labeled.
- Use percentages in the table--DO NOT report frequencies. Use a % sign in the
first row of data ONLY, and in the TOTAL row.
- Include a row for TOTAL which shows 100.0% so the reader of your
table knows what type of percentages you are using.
- Include a row for (N) to report the total number of cases in each
column; use parentheses to distinguish the "number" from percentages.