Selected Political Science Resources

Political Science

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Elections

Commission on Presidential Debates
For transcripts of Presidential debates, with news and historical information
http://www.debates.org

CQ Voting and Elections Collection
Data, election analysis, explanations, primary documents. Presidential, Congressional, gubernatorial elections. Campaigns and elections, political parties, voters and demographics. (CQ Press)
http://library.cqpress.com

FactCheck.org
A "nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics." (Annenberg Public Policy Center of the U. of Pennsylvania)
http://factcheck.org

League of Women Voters
Nonpartisan information on national and local elections
http://www.lwv.org

U.S. Electoral College
From the National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college

Federal Government

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation
Digital access to approximately 700 physical volumes of materials reflecting the history and development of the U.S. Congress, spanning the first one hundred years of the nation's legislative process. Includes documents covering the First Congress, Letters of Delegates to Congress (1774-89), the American State Papers (1789-1838), the Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, Joint Resolutions of the Senate (1824-73). Bibliographies, and links to related information on the Internet.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/

CQ Congress Collection
Member profiles, legislative policy histories, chronologies, statistics, demographic and electoral data, and roll call votes. (CQ Press)
http://library.cqpress.com

CQ Encyclopedia of American Government
Search topics for articles from four CQ encyclopedias - The Presidency A-Z, Congress A-Z, Elections A-Z and The Supreme Court A-Z.(CQ Press)
http://library.cqpress.com

CQ Supreme Court Collection
Historical analysis and summaries of the most important Supreme Court decisions, statistics, and quantitative analysis on essential topics, Justice biographies, and institutional history of the Court, with news feed on current events and public opinion surrounding the Court’s decisions.(CQ Press)
http://library.cqpress.com

CQ Weekly
Expert coverage of the U.S. Congress: status of bills, votes and amendments, floor and committee activity. (CQ Press)
http://library.cqpress.com

FirstGov
The official gateway to the US government on the Internet. Searchable and easy to navigate.
http://www.firstgov.gov

FLITE: Supreme Court Decisions 1937-1975
Federal Legal Information Through Electronics
http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm

GPO Access
"Official Federal Government information at your fingertips." 70 online databases, including the Budget of the US, the Federal Register, Congressional Record, The US Code. (US Government Printing Office)
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html

Homeland Security
Dedicated to homeland-security research. (University of California at San Diego)
http://homelandsecurity.ucsd.edu.

Legislation into Law
Research guide from Public Documents and Maps Dept., Perkins Library, Duke Univeristy. Many of the print and online subscription resources are available at MHC.
http://docs.lib.duke.edu/federal/guides/LandL1st.html

LII: Supreme Court Collection
Recent Supreme Court decisions (1990 to the present), available from the day of decision, with concurring and dissenting opinions. Searchable by keyword, or by browsing an index of topics. Coverage includes selected major decisions prior to 1990. (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html

POTUS: Presidents of the United States
Provides links to all Presidents of the US, listed in chronological order. Information includes terms of office, background information, election results, cabinet members and notable events. Links to historical documents (complete texts to inaugural and farewell addresses, key speeches), biographical information, audio and video files. (Internet Public Library)
http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/

President
Provides links to the home pages of 10 presidential libraries, as well as presidential historic sites, parks, and nonprofit organizations. Includes information on First Ladies. (Univ. of NC, Chapel Hill)
http://www.ibiblio.org/lia/president/pres-home.html

Thomas: US Congress on the Internet
Provides House and Senate information, links to congressional information. Full text of current bills, searchable by bill number or keyword, or browse by bill type. (Library of Congress)
http://thomas.loc.gov

Welcome to the White House
Information on the President and Vice-President and their families, White House history, documents archive, links to federal services. The White House Briefing Room provides daily press releases on important policy matters. Provides links to FirstGov, the gateway to US government on the Internet.
http://www.whitehouse.gov

Gateways & General Resources

Political Science Resources on the Web
Well-organized, searchable gateway with annotated links. Topics include foreign politics, political theory, international relations, state governments, local governments, think tanks, area studies, US politics and elections. Updated regularly. (Grace York, University of Michigan Library)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/poliscinew.html

Social Science Resources: Political Science
Annotated links to political science research sites, covering the Americas, Europe, international studies, human rights, military and defense. (Craig McKie, Using the Web for Social Research, McGraw-Hill)
http://www.socsciresearch.com/r12.html

Voice of the Shuttle: Politics and Government
Extensive list of links to sites related to politics and government. Searchable. (Alan Liu, Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara.)
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2726

International Affairs

Background Notes
Information of geographic entities and international organizations. Information covers geography, people, government and political conditions, government officials, economy, history, foreign and US relations, travel and business information (US Dept. of State)
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/

Foreign Affairs Online
Organized by topics related to international relations and US domestic policy, provides links to several thousand sites: every part of the US government, all UN agencies, constitutions of all nations, maps. (Robert J. Beck, Tufts Univ.)
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjb3v/beck.html

INCORE Regional Internet Guides: Conflict Data Service
Guides to Internet resources on conflict and ethnicity specific to countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America including news sources, academic centers, articles, maps, and nongovernmental organizations for each area. (INCORE: Initiative on Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity)
http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/cds/

International Data Base
A computerized data bank containing statisitical tables of demographic and socioeconomic data for 227 countries and areas of the world. (U.S. Census Bureau)
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbnew.html

Political Database of the Americas
Constitutions, electoral information, and political party descriptions for Latin American countries. (Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown Univ. and the Organization of American States)
http://www.georgetown.edu/pdba

World Factbook
Detailed information on the geography, demographics, government, and economy of countries, territories, and regions of the world. Each entry includes a map of the area under discussion. (CIA)
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

Public Policy

C-SPAN.org
Public affairs on the web. Provides links to each of the series available on C-SPAN, as well as C-SPAN in the Classroom, which provides ideas for educators.
http://www.cspan.org

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Site of the opinion research group that studies public attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. Includes survey reports, poll analysis, an archive, and links to related sites. (Pew Charitable Trusts)
http://www.people-press.org/

CQ Public Affairs Collection
A storehouse of public policy content, organized into 22 subject areas, including advocacy and public service, culture and recreation, education, environment,science. In depth reporting on vital issues, statistical and historical analysis, historic documents and primary source materials. Directory of key government, nonprofit, and private organizations in each major policy area.(CQ Press)
http://library.cqpress.com/cqpac

State & Local Governments

Council on State Governments
Federal/state relations, governors, state legislatures, headlines and news archives, programs, election data, policy, links to related sites.
http://www.csg.org

National Conference of State Legislatures
Primarily organized for lawmakers and their staffs. Provides access to directories, publications, databases and projects related to relationships between the states and between the states and the federal government.
http://www.ncsl.org

State and Local Government on the Net
Directory of government sponsored and controlled resources on the Internet. Includes state and multi-state sites, federal resources, and national organizations. Searchable. (Piper Resources)
http://www.statelocalgov.net/

US Conference of Mayors
News, issues, polls, election results, profiles of mayors, links to cities. Searchable.
http://www.usmayors.org

In place: March 2001; Last updated: 1/22/2007
Bev Robertson, Reference Services Librarian
brobertson@mhc.edu
Renfro Library, Mars Hill College