Reference Sources for Background Information

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government - A user-friendly, informative, and amusing presentation of how our government works. Hosted by Ben Franklin himself!

Core Documents of U.S. Democracy [Government Printing Office]

Specialized Encyclopedias

Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. Clapp Ref JK 1096 O43 1996. Discusses how the contemporary Congress makes laws and how its rules and procedures shape domestic and foreign policy.

Congressional Quarterly Guide to Congress. Clapp Ref JK 1021 C565 2000 2 vols. Background information on the history, procedures, powers, committees and financing of Congress in an easy to read style.

Congressional Quarterly Guide to the Presidency. Clapp Ref JK516 .G83 2008 2 vols.

Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court. Clapp Ref KF8742 .W567 1997

Encyclopedia of American Public Policy. Clapp Ref JK 468 P64 J33 1999. Discusses topics and major legislation around the major policy areas (crime, education, health, etc.).

Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. Clapp Ref KF4548 .E53 2000 6 vols.

The Encyclopedia of the Republican Party/The Encyclopedia of the Democratic Party and Supplements. Clapp Ref JK 2352 K87.

The Encyclopedia of Third Parties in America. Clapp Ref JK 2261 N46 2000.

The Lobbying Handbook. Clapp Ref JK1118 .L58 1990. The basics of the lobbying business.

Almanacs/Directories

Almanac of Federal PACs. 1994/95-. Clapp Ref JK1991 .A744. Descriptive paragraphs about Policital Action Committees.

CQ Almanac 1945-. Clapp Ref JK 1 C66. Compiles the legislative actions of each session of Congress according to topic. Appendixes include: a list of members, vote studies, key votes, text of important speeches, a list of public laws enacted and house and senate roll call votes.

Databases

CQ Library - clicking on this link allows you to search all the databases below.
      CQ Congress - analysis of members of Congress, key votes, interest groups, public policy legislation
      CQ Researcher Archive - full text of in-depth, unbiased background and analysis on timely political topics from 1991+
      CQ Voting and Elections - data, analyses, explanations and historical material on the election process.
      CQ Weekly - full text articles on legislation before Congress, political and lobbying activity. Includes votes data. 1983+.
      CQ Almanac 1945+ - original analysis and data on major legislation and political dates during each Congressional session.

National Journal - nonpartisan weekly on politics, policy and government. 1977+.
The Hotline - election coverage (updated daily), local & national political polls, audio & video TV political ads
Congress Daily - follow the key players and legislative process on Capitol Hill; latest 2 weeks only.

Academic Search Premier and Expanded Academic ASAP - great starting points for scholarly & popular articles in every discipline.

JSTOR - online archive from the first issue of core journals in Economics, Demographics, Political Science. Journals can be browsed by category or title or searched by keyword. Full text in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format.

Alt-Press Watch - Full-text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press from 1995-present. This isn't the most scholarly source, but it is full text and can give you some leads.

Internet Links

NOTE: Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

For more information on how to evaluate web pages or for specific search engines see our search the web page.

General Policy Sites

Almanac of Policy Issues - Comprehensive, unbiased background information and links on major U.S. public policy issues.

Congressional Research Service Reports - prepared for members of Congress, these reports are timely, unbiased, and accurate. They are not distributed to the public, but the following Web sites make selected titles available. You may have to check several sites to find what you want.

• from the University of North Texas libraries (archived and permanently available)
• from The Memory Hole
• OpenCRS (from the Center for Democracy and Technology)
• from the Federation of American Scientists (foreign policy and national security)
• from the Thurgood Marshall Law Library in the areas of Homeland Security/Terrorism and Health Law and Policy.
• from the U.S. Dept. of State
• from the National Library for the Environment
• from the Franklin Pierce Law School IP Mall - Intellectual property, cyberlaw and electronic commerce
• a Google-gathered list of all available reports

Moving Ideas: The Electronic Policy Network. "Moving Ideas posts the best ideas and resources from leading progressive research and advocacy institutions, as well as promotes high-quality websites and publishes original content. We hope to strengthen democratic participation by providing a more inclusive and intelligible debate about the issues that shape our world."

Public Agenda - A nonpartisan opinion research organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues since 1975. See their issue guides.

Rand Corporation - A non-profit institution that addresses the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. See their list of research areas.

Congress/Legislation

Almanac of American Politics 1972-. Clapp Ref JK 271 B343 and Politics in America Clapp Ref JK1010 .P64. Senators, Represenatives and Govenors; their records and election results, their states and districts. Includes interest group ratings for elected officials as well as campaign expenditures reported to the FEC. Also has descriptions of Congressional districts.

Congressional Districts in the 2000s. Clapp REf JK 271 B343. Descriptions of Congressional districts.

U.S. House of Representatives - find the representative for your home district, or use the search button to search for issues. Using the search button will lead you to experts testifying about the issue, congressmen sponsoring legislation about an issue, or dissenting views.

U.S. Senate - find the senators for your state, or lookup specific legislation. This page links to recent lagislation by topic.

LexisNexis Congressional - U.S. bills, laws, regulations and some Congressional hearing testimony from 1988+

LexisNexis State Capital - State bills and laws, constitutions, proposed and enacted regulations, legislature membership, and newspapers of record. Search 1 state or across states.

News

LexisNexis Academic News - For news from state sources, click on the sources tab at the top, then choose country United States, then the state you want. Click on the yellow News Folder and choose the sources you want. Click OK Continue on the right.

LexisNexis U.S. Politics and World News - Latest news from over 4,000 U.S. and International news sources.

Political News from Politics1.com

Yahoo Politics News

LexisNexis Congressional Political News

Executive Branch (Government agencies dealing with health, education, etc. fall under the Executive Branch)

Directory of Federal Agencies and Departments [from Louisiana State University]

Reports from the General Accountibility Office - independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. Often called the "congressional watchdog," GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.

Polls and Surveys

Polling the Nation - compilation of hundreds of thousands of public opinion survey questions and responses. Polls can be local, state, national, or international.

Roper Center's iPOLL Databank - Searchable collection of 500,000 questions and answers from surveys collected by the major polling firms in the U.S. since 1935, with downloadable datasets. Restricted to the Wellesley College community.

Public Agenda - founded to help American leaders better understand the public's point of view. Part of this site requires a login and password. For poll data, choose Issue Guides from the top bar. These polls are national in scope. When you select an issue, look for the link to other polling organizations.

The Gallup Organization - opinion polls and trends.

PollingReport.com - Polling data on national, political, economic, and sociocultural topics.

Pew Research Center for People and the Press - Polls, public opinion research, and national surveys on public attitudes toward press, politics, and public policy issues.

Major U.S. media polls

• ABC News Polling Unit (2005–present).
• The Associated Press/IPSOS Poll (2003–present).
• CBS News Polls (Current year).
• Fox News Polls (2005–present).
• The L.A. Times Polls (1996–present).
• The New York Times Polls (2002–present).
• The NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Polls (1999–present).
• Time Magazine/SRBI Polls (2004-present)
• The Washington Post Polls (1997–present).

Interest Groups

Encyclopedia of Associations. Clapp Ref HS 17 G33 3 parts. Brief entries on organizations. Part 3 has a keyword index.

Encyclopedia of Interest Groups and Lobbyists in the United States. Clapp Ref JK1118 .N47 2000. Vol. 2 has a section at the end on table and figures for PACs and Lobbyists.

Public Interest Group Profiles. Clapp Ref JK 1118 P79 2006/2007.

Political Advocacy Groups [Cal State Chico]- Directory of United States Lobbysits.

Money in State Politics [Institute on Money in State Politics] - view contributions to candidates by state, candidate, contributor, or special interest.

Money in U.S. Elections [Center for Responsive Politics] - who gives and who gets.

LobbyWatch [Center for Public Integrity] - federal lobbying in the U.S.

CQ MoneyLine - comprehensive, timely and objective campaign finance and lobbying information with campaign donation and expenditure data dating to the 1979-80 election cycle. Some sections restricted to members.

See also CQ Congress listed under databases.

Citing Your Information

Important: When you find information electronically, either in a database like Social Sciences Full Test or just by searching the Web, you must cite the article the way you found it. If it was through a database from our A-Z list, you must state in the citation, the name of the database where you found the information. If you found your information on a Web site, you must give the url and the date you accessed it.

Chicago Manual of Style [from University of Wisconsin-Madison]
Chicago Manual of Style. Clapp Ref Z253 .C57 2003. There are also copies at the Science and Music Libraries.
Examples of the Chicago Manual of Style [from the University of Chicago Press]You can also search the Q&As to find information about citing electronic resources.

Return to Resources by Subject: Political Science

Return to Resources by Subject