Political Science Research Starter

From the Government Printing Office, this site is a portal for federal publications of all types.

Offers links to federal agency Web sites, arranged hierarchically and alphabetically, with a search engine.

A clearinghouse of over 8,000 reports on a wide variety of topics created by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for members of Congress. Though these reports are highly useful, they are not made public unless released by a member of Congress. From the Center for Democracy & Technology. (Another guide to CRS reports is available from the University of North Texas Libraries.)

Offers a well-organized and current list of links to local, state, federal, foreign, and international Web sites with official information, as well as links to statistical information sources and a guide to political science material on the Web.

This online archive contains the contents of three C-SPAN cable channels focusing on public affairs, including Congressional affairs. Programs, from 1987 to present are indexed by speaker names, committees, categories, topics, policy groups, and more. Of particular interest are congressional sessions and committee hearings, indexed by full text words and by personal name. Videos also have an "embed" button that can be used to include a video in a website or blog. Originally created by Purdue University, the archive is now hosted and indexed by C-SPAN.

From the Library of Congress. Provides the text of bills introduced in Congress along with committee action from the 104th Congress (1995) to present. Users can search the site by bill number or keyword to learn about the legislative process, find a state's members of Congress, and access a comprehensive database on current and past legislation. The site also provides a full-text search of the Congressional Record, a daily record of activity in Congress, and committee information. Most official state Web sites provide similar bill-tracking information for state legislatures.

From the Washington Post, this site provides information on votes in Congress since 1991. It provides detail and summary information about each vote as well as some aggregated information, from the useful (voting patterns by region) to the absurd (votes by astrological sign). A few types of votes are also highlighted, such as for treaties, impeachments, and vice-presidential tie-breakers. To keep up with current voting, there is an RSS feed as well as a list of recent votes.

Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, these online editions of book-length country profiles are produced for U.S. diplomats. This site includes substantial information on each nation's culture, history, economy, and political system. It is searchable by topic and country. Be sure to note publication dates; some volumes are more than ten years old and may include outdated materials.

Maintained by Robert J. Beck, this is a meta-index to sites related to international law, international relations, human rights, NGOs and IGOs, and U.S. foreign policy. Well organized and thoroughly annotated.

A digital project from Georgetown University’s Center for Latin American Studies and the Secretariat for Political Affairs of the Organization of American States. This database includes a wide range of documents from countries located in the Americas, such as national constitutions, judicial documents, and information on civil society. Materials are available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

Offers news releases, virtual tours, documents, and basic information about the United Nations and its bodies. Three different search engines explore a large database and list of links. The site includes a wealth of reports, statistical data, and other information on human rights, international law, peacekeeping missions, and other topics. In addition, there is a separate database of official UN documents available on the Web, covering primarily parliamentary documents from 1993 to present.

Information on US relations abroad as well as background information from the US State Department.

Links to the constitutions of countries around the world.

From Cornell University, annotated list of available polls

Gallup Poll Cumulative Index: Public Opinion
Location: Ref HN90.P8 G355
An annual compilation of opinion poll statistics gathered by the Gallup Organization, covering from 1935 to the present. Indexes make it easy to find figures from different years. This organization also maintains a website which contains selected data at Gallup.com

Provides access to Harris polls

Results from most Latin American countries as well as Madagascar, Israel and Albania

Polls from major media organizations in Japan and South Korea

Gateway to variety of studies supported by Pew Research

Produced by the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina, some coverage extends from 1970 - present

A guide from University of Pennsylvania Library

From the University of Michigan

Tables and graphs from World Values Survey conducted 1981-2004

This scholarly website contains random samples of issues on which lobbyists were active during the 106th and 107th Congresses. Click on any of the listed issues to find a wide range of resources, including bill information, TV and print news stories, and committee hearings.

From the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at the University of Washington, the Policy Agendas Project traces policy changes in the United States since World War II. The website provides a wealth of research tools, including data sets for congressional hearings, New York Times articles, Gallup Polls, Executive Orders, and Supreme Court cases. The data can be downloaded in a variety of formats.

Funded by the Department of Homeland Security and based at the University of Maryland. The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world. Unlike many other event databases, the GTD includes systematic data on domestic as well as international terrorist attacks and now includes more than 87,000 cases. For each GTD incident, information is available on the date and location of the incident, the weapons used and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and—when identifiable—the group or individual responsible. (Annual updates planned for the future).

From George Washington University, this is the Website of a project that has collected the world's largest non-governmental archive of declassified documents, many of them covering controversial issues and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Though many documents are not accessible through the Web site, there are large collections of papers called briefing books on a variety of foreign affairs topics. This site is a rich set of primary source documents on key international issues.

From the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, this site is building a collection of digital versions of secret recordings of conversations in the Oval Office from 1940 through 1973. Currently there are selected conversations from Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson available. Presidential speeches and oral histories are also available. An affiliated site, American President, offers biographical information on all U.S. presidents and background on the workings of the White House.

A clearinghouse based at the University of Maryland for the results of opinion polls covering worldwide attitudes about international affairs. Organized by region and topic.

From the National Counterterrorism Center, the calendar features terrorism information, terrorist profiles, terrorist group details, as well as an interactive timeline and interactive map.