American Government and Public Policy
Internet Resources
November 2007
Academic and Research Organizations
Scholarly Journals![[index]](../images/index.gif)
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(Abstracts or table of contents only, unless otherwise noted)
Congress & Law
Key Official Sites
Selected
Resources on Congress
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-present
(U.S. Congress)
- Cap-Web
"The Internet Guide to the U.S. Congress." Directory information,
meeting schedules, etc.
- Capitol Advantage
Fee-based directory service.
- Center for the Study
of the Congress (Duke University School of Law)
- A Century of Lawmaking
for a New Nation (Library of Congress)
"Congressional documents and debates, 1774-1873."
- Congress Votes Database (Washington Post)
Congressional votes since 102nd (1991) Congress.
- Congressional Archives
(Carl Albert Center, University of Oklahoma)
Papers of selected members of Congress.
- Congressional Directory
(GPO Access)
- Congressional
Hearings - Browse (GPO Access)
Browse congressional hearings, 105th Congress (1997-1998)
onward, with links to full-text.
- Congressional Information Center (C-SPAN)
Includes member directories, House and Senate daily schedules,
and information on current issues and legislation.
- Congressional
Report Cards (Voter Information Services)
Bar graphs indicating congress members' support of legislative
positions of various advocacy groups.
- Congressional Research Service Reports (via
Committee for the National Institute for the Environment)
- CQ
Electronic Library (UCB only)
Congressional Quarterly's proprietary information service.
- Contacting the Congress (Juan
E. Cabanela)
- C-SPAN
Includes live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the proceedings
of the U.S. House and Senate.
- Dirksen Congressional Center
"A non-partisan, not-for-profit organization ... that seeks
to improve civic engagement by promoting a better understanding
of Congress and its leaders through archival, research, and
educational programs."
- The
Federal Impeachment Process: A Bibliographic Guide (Thomas
C. Kingsley, revised by Joseph Luke)
- GOP.gov (House Republican Conference)
- The Hill
"The Capitol Newspaper."
- Lexis-Nexis Congressional
[Access for
UC users] (Lexis-Nexis)
Proprietary service offering bill tracking, indexes and abstracts
of congressional publications, and full-text access to committee
reports, federal regulations, and the Congressional Record.
- Office of the Clerk On-line Information Center
(U.S. House)
- OpenCongress
(Sunlight Foundation and Participatory Politics Foundation)
"OpenCongress
brings together official government data with news and blog
coverage to give you the real story behind each bill."
- Roll Call Online
Online version of Roll Call newspaper.
- U.S. Congressional Bibliographies (North Carolina State University Libraries)
Lists of Senate hearings, prints, and publications, 1983 onward. Lists of House committee meetings, 1985 onward.
- U.S. House Democratic Leadership
- The
United States Senate: An Institutional Bibliography, 1789-2000
(U.S. Senate)
A detailed table of contents faciliates access to the bibliography.
- VoteWorld (Institute for
European Studies and Institute of Governmental Studies, U.C.
Berkeley)
"The international legislative roll-call voting website."
Includes data from the 102nd Congress (1991-93) onward.
- Women in Congress
(U.S. House. Office of the Clerk)
Law and
Legislation
- Charters
of Freedom (National Archives
and Records Administration)
Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
- FindLaw
An extensive array of free legal resources and tools for
lawyers, students, business and the public.
- Law and Politics Internet Guide
(by Randy Roberts)
"Your one-stop source for legal research." Gateway site
for legal resources.
- Legal Information Institute
(Cornell Law School)
Excellent starting point for legal research.
- Public and
Private Laws (Via GPO Access)
Database of laws enacted by the 104th Congress (1995-96) onward, corresponding
to the Statutes at Large, Vol. 109 (1995) onward.
- THOMAS (Library of
Congress)
Key official resource for bill tracking, Congressional
Record and committee reports.
- United States Code (Office
of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House)
- United
States Constitution (Cornell University Law School)
- United States Constitution
Annotated (Congressional Research Service, Library
of Congress)
- WWW Virtual Library--Law
(Indiana University School of Law--Bloomington)
Links to a broad range of legal sites. Searchable by broad
subject categories--e.g., constitutional law, environmental
law, family law.
Courts and
Case Law
Executive Branch
Selected Executive Agencies
Other Resources
Media
Newspapers
News Services, Magazines, Etc.
Other Resources
Political Parties, Campaigns
and Elections
Political Parties
2004 Election
2000 Election
- The
Choice 2000 (Frontline - PBS)
Companion site to a two-hour Frontline special. Offers the
entire broadcast in RealPlayer, supplemented with additional
material including summaries of the candidates' policy stands.
- CyberCaucus
2000 (Drake University)
"Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses." Links to news stories
and to presidential/congressional candidate sites.
- Election
2000: An Internet Library (Alexa Wayback Machine)
"A publicly accessible repository of digital materials covering
the U.S. Presidential Election of 2000."
- Presidential Election
2000 (Yahoo!)
- P2000:
Race for the White House (George Washington University)
Election
Statistics
- American National Election
Studies (Stanford University, University of Michigan)
"ANES conducts national surveys of the American electorate in election years and carries out research and development work through pilot studies."
- Voting and Election Collection (Congressional Quarterly) "Documents and data on specific elections, important events, electoral process, and more." [Use advanced search and select election years].
- Election Information
(U.S. Congress. House. Office of the Clerk)
Official federal election statistics from 1920 onward. 1920-1990
in PDF format.
- LandVote (Trust for Public Land)
Tracks land conservation ballot measures accross the United States.
- Lijphart
Elections Archive (U.C. San Diego)
"A research collection of district level election results
for approximately 350 national legislative elections in
26 countries." Mayoral
Elections Database (U.S. Conference of Mayors) U.S. mayoral election statistics, 1999 onward.
- U.S.
Presidential Election Maps, 1860-1996 (University of Virginia.
Geospatial & Statistical Data Center)
Maps of the percent of the popular vote, and electoral vote
distribution and totals.
- Voter Turnout: A Global Survey (IDEA, International
Institute for Democracy andElectoral Assistance)
Voter turnout by country from 1945 to date.
- Voting
and Registration (U.S. Census Bureau)
Major resource for current and historical voting and registration
statistics.
Campaign
Finance
- Brookings Campaign
Finance Home Page (Brookings Institution)
"Source of essential cases, legal and policy materials on
campaign finance."
- Campaign Disclosure Project UCLA School of Law, Center for Governmental Studies and California Voter Foundation)
"Bringing sunlight to political money in the fifty states."
- Campaign Finance: Public Policy Inquiry (Hoover Institution)
Includes sections on campaign finance history, reform proposals, Supreme Court cases, etc.
- Campaign Finance Information Center (Investigative Reporters and Editors, Missouri School of Journalism)
"Dedicated to helping journalists follow the campaign money trail--on the national, state and local levels."
- Campaign Finance Institute
Affiliated with George Washington University, the institute
addresses campaign finance issues "in a manner that reaches
across traditional lines of debate through broad programs
of research, deliberation and public education." Includes
a "Key Races 2000" feature tracking campaign fundraising
in the most competitive House and Senate races.
- Campaign
Finance Materials (Stanford Law School Library)
Includes links to case materials for all the lawsuits filed
against the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Also
includes links to other campaign finance cases, news and
opinion pieces, and a bibliography.
- Campaign
Finance Reform (Electronic Policy Network)
One of a series of "Issues in Depth" from the Electronic
Policy Network, a project of American Prospect magazine.
- Campaign Finance
Reform (Pew Charitable Trusts)
"Your online resource for campaign finance reform research,
news and information."
- Center For Responsive
Politics (opensecrets.org)
Non-partisan tracking of money in politics, and its effect
on elections and public policy.
- The Color of Money (Public Campaign)
A study of campaign contributions to House and Senate candidates in the 1996 election. The key finding is that "the vast
majority of contributions came from areas that are primarily
white and wealthy." Includes a database with total contributions,
per capita contributions and number of donors by zip code.
- Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Created in 1975 to administer the Federal Election Campaign
Act (FECA), the statute that governs the financing of federal
elections. Official source for campaign finance data.
- Follow the Money (Institute on Money in State Politics)
Database for tracking interest group campaign contributions in state elections.
- National Voting Rights Institute
"The Institute aims to redefine the issue of private money in public elections as the ation's newest voting rights barrier, and to vindicate the constitutional right of all citizens, regardless of their economic status, to participate in the electoral process on an equal and meaningful basis."
- OpenSecrets.org
For description see Center for Responsive Politics
above.
- PoliticalMoneyLine (TRKC
Inc.)
Major site for federal campaign finance data. Includes databases
searchable by candidate name and donor. Also includes "subscriber
only" databases FECInfo Pro and PACtracker.
- Public Campaign
Advocates reforms to reduce the role of special interest
money in America's elections and the influence of big contributors
in American politics)
- Self-Financing Candidates
in American Elections (Jennifer A. Steen, Boston College)
Includes text of Steen's docroral dissertation: Money
Isn't Everything: Self-Financing Candidates in U.S. House
Elections, 1992-98.
- Soft Money
Laundromat (Common Cause)
Database of soft money contributions to the Democratic and
Republican national committees.
Other Resources
- Alliance for Better
Campaigns
"A public interest group founded in 1998 that seeks to improve elections by promoting campaigns in which the most useful
information reaches the greatest number of citizens in the most engaging way."
- Annenberg Political Fact Check (Annenberg
Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania)
"A nonpartisan, nonprofit, 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases."
- Ballot Access News
(Richard Winger)
Non-partisan newsletter reporting on ballot access issues.
- Ballot Initiative Strategy
Center
"Where progressives turn to fight or launch a ballot initiative."
- buyingtime.org (Brennan
Center for Justice, NYU School of Law)
Searchable database of political TV advertising in the 1998
congressional elections. Used in the preparation of the
2000 report: Buying Time: Television Advertising in the
1998 Congressional Elections.
- Caltech-MIT/Voting Technology Project
Seeks to establish standards for reliable voting systems
in order to prevent the kinds of problems that occurred
in the 2000 presidential election.
- Campaigns & Elections
(Congressional Quarterly, Inc.)
"The magazine for people in politics."
- Center for Voting and
Democracy
Examines how voting systems affect voter participation;
specializes in reapportionment and proportional representation.
- Committee for the Study of
the American Electorate (George Washington University)
Focuses on issues of citizen engagement in politics. (Find
the link at bottom of page.)
- DemocracyNet (League
of Women Voters Education Fund and Grassroots.com)
"Your premier public interest site for election information."
- ELECnet's
"Getvoting411.us" (Edward Packard)
"Election administration resources on the Internet."
- Election Center
"A nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting, preserving,
and improving democracy. Its members are government employees
whose profession is to serve in voter registration and elections
administration."
- electionline.org (Election Reform Information Project)
"Non-partisan, non-advocacy website providing up-to-the-minute news and analysis on election reform."
- Elections (Government Documents Roundtable, American Library Association)
Excellent starting point for Web-based resources on elections.
- Electoral
College (National Archives and Records Administration)
Electoral college information and statistics.
- EMILY's List
"A political network for pro-choice Democratic women."
- How to Register to
Vote in the United States (RegisterVote.com)
Voter registration qualifications and procedures for the
50 states. Sponsored by the Bagwell Agency.
- Improving Campaign Conduct
(American University. Center for Congressional and Presidential
Studies)
"A three-year grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts to work
with the campaign consulting industry to improve the conduct
of election campaigns."
- Initiative &
Referendum Institute
This site and a sister site Ballot Watch "provide
in-depth non-partisan and non-political information about
the initiative and referendum process."
- Issues 2001 (Issues
2000)
"Every political leader on every issue." Matches candidates
and elected officials to their positions on the issues.
- LandVote (Trust for Public Land)
Database tracking
conservation-related ballot measures, 1994 onward.
- League of Women Voters
- The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commericials (American Museum of the Moving Image)
"Online exhibition presenting more than 250 television commercials from every election year beginning in 1952." Includes a "sidebar section, 'The Desktop Candidate,' about the growing role of the Internet in presidential campaigns."
- National Association of State
Election Directors
Includes linked directory of state election offices.
- Political Commercial
Archive (University of Oklahoma's Political Communication
Center)
A repository of radio and television commercials and other
archival resources related to the study of the political
communication process.
- Political Resouces
On-line
"Tools for candidate, issue and corporate campaigns." Includes
online version of Political Resource Directory, a
national list of political consultants and campaign management
firms.
- PoliticsandElections.com
(Kathleen Thompson Hill and Gerald Hill)
Covers politics and election news, with an emphasis on the
U.S. and Canada.
- Politics1 (Politics1.com)
"Non-partisan public service to promote fully informed decision-making
by the American electorate."
- Project Vote Smart
"Tracks and provides to the public independent factual information
on over 13,000 candidates and elected officials."
- The Vanishing Voter
(Joan Shorenstein Center, Harvard University)
"A project to study and invigorate the American electoral
process."
Public Opinion
Public Policy
Public Interest/Advocacy Organizations
General
- American Enterprise Institute
- Brookings Institution
- CATO Institute
Promotes public policy "based on individual liberty, limited
government, free markets, and peace."
- Center for National Policy
"Committed to the ideal of a vital public sector.".
- Center for Public
Integrity
"Mission is to examine public service and ethics-related
issues."
- Center for the New West
"Founded in 1989 as an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit
think tank to develop can-do ideas, policies and strategies
to replace prevailing gloom-and-doom thinking about the
West and the nation."
- Common Cause
"A nonprofit, nonpartisan citizen's lobbying organization
promoting open, honest and accountable government." John
Gardner, founder.
- Congressional Institute
"Dedicated to helping members of Congress better serve the
nation and to helping the public better understand public
policy debates and the operations of the national legislature."
- Council for Excellence
in Government
- Economic Democracy
Information Network
"A project dedicated to expanding the voice of community
organizations on the Information Superhighway."
- Free Congress Foundation
Think tank advocating of "cultural conservatism."
- Heritage Foundation
"Committed to rolling back the liberal welfare state and
building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity,
and civil society flourish."
- Independent Institute
Nonpartisan public policy research institute.
- National Center
for Policy Analysis
"A nonprofit public policy research institute." Its "goal
is to develop and promote private alternatives to government
regulation and control..."
- National Committee for an
Effective Congress
Supports "progressive candidates" who favor "freedom of
choice, separation of church and state, gun control," etc.
- NationalIssues.com
"A non-partisan, issue-oriented research web site."
- National Organization for Women
(NOW)
- New Democrats Online (Democratic
Leadership Council)
Affiliated think tank is the Progressive Policy Institute.
- Northeast Midwest Institute
"Non-partisan research organization dedicated to economic
vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for
Northeast and Midwest states."
- People for the American Way
"Organizes and mobilizes Americans to fight for fairness,
justice, civil rights and the freedoms guaranteed by the
Constitution."
- Project on Government
Secrecy (Federation of American Scientists)
"Works to challenge excessive government secrecy and to
promote public oversight."
- Public Agenda Online
"A nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research and citizen
education organization." Presents an array of public policy
issues in a "balanced and easy-to-understand way."
- Public Interest Research Groups
The national association of state-based PIRGs.
- Reason Foundation
"Explores and promotes public policies based on rationality
and freedom."
- Town Hall
"Conservative news & information."
- U.S. Term Limits
Advocates congressional term limits.
- Western States
Center
A regional organization focused on building "a progressive
movement for social, economic, racial and environmental
justice in the eight western states of Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Alaska."
Economic Policy
Environmental Policy
Social Policy
- American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU)
- American Civil Rights Institute
"Aimed at educating the public about the problems created
by racial and gender preferences." Ward Connerly, founder.
- American Public Human Services
Association(Formerly American Public Welfare ssociation)
- Brennan Center for
Justice (NYU School of Law)
- Carter Center
- Center for Immigration Studies
- Child Trends, Inc.
"Studies children, youth, and families through research,
data collection, and data analysis."
- Children's Defense
Fund
- Civilrights.org
(Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Leadership
Conference Education Fund)
Goal is "to recruit, educate and mobilize individuals of
good conscience in the ongoing struggle for equal opportunity."
- Committee on Health Politics
"A Related Organization of the American Political Science
Association."
- Community Policing Consortium
- Death Penalty News & Updates
- Education Commission of the States
- Federation for American Immigration
Reform (FAIR)
- Gun Laws, Gun Control &
Gun Rights (JURIST, University of Pittsburgh School of Law)
"An educational resource for individuals on all sides in
the ongoing controversy over the legal status of guns in
the United States."
- Joint Center for Political and Economic
Studies
"A national, nonprofit institution that conducts research
on public policy issues of special concern to black Americans
and other minorities."
- Knowledgeplex.org
(Fannie Mae Foundation)
"Your comprehensive interactive resource for the affordable
housing and community development field."
- NAACP
- National Association for Welfare Research and
Statistics
- National Association of Housing and Redevelopment
Officials (NAHRO)
- National Housing Institute
- National Coalition for the Homeless
"A national advocacy network of homeless persons, activists,
service providers, and others committed to ending homelessness
through public education, policy advocacy, grassroots organizing,
and technical assistance."
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service
(U.S. Dept of Justice)
- National Low Income Housing Coalition/LIHIS
"The only national organization dedicated solely to ending
America's affordable housing crisis."
- Smart Library
on Urban Poverty (National Institute for Social Science
Information)
- Welfare Information
Network
"A clearinghouse for information, policy analysis and technical assistance
related to welfare, workforce development, and other human and community
services."
Tax and Budget Policy
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