Politics & Government Internet Resources

Paul Burnam , Public Services Librarian , is the librarian liaison to the Politics & Government Department.

Indexes and general resources are good starting points for exploring political science on the Internet

• Congress.Org: This site offers a simple but most useful membership directory for both houses of Congress. The main page also indicates whether Congress is in session and accesses the daily House, Senate, and committee schedules.
• Google Directory: is constructed such that the user can move from broad, general topics to more narrow and specific ones. The URL above will connect users to all Internet resources pertaining to government and politics.

Governmental agencies

• U. S. House of Representatives: The House of Representatives home page provides links to the current membership directory, lists of committees and subcommittees, current legislative activities, and House procedures.
• The United States Senate: Mirrors many of the same features as the House home page. Offers a search engine like the House site too.
• Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet: Perhaps the most useful of the all the government Web sites. Offers full text of legislation in both houses of Congress. Provides links to the other branches of the federal government.
• Welcome to the White House: The White House gives biographical information on the president, vice president, first lady, various federal programs, a citizen's handbook, and links to other federal government sites.

Organizations and associations

• American Bar Association: The Web site for the largest association in the American legal profession.
• American Political Science Association: This body is dedicated to the study and promotion of the development of the art and science of government.
• The European Union (EU) in the US: This site is aimed at providing American users to a wide range of links connected with the European Union. The site is divided into four basic parts: Resources (further divided into Information, additional Web sites, and a well-organized Help page), News (including updates on new additions to the site, pertinent news from around the EU, and a listing of important publications for purchase), Profile (background on the 15 member states, legislation and policies of the EU, and simple statistical profiles, with links to more complete data for purchase), and EU in the US (listing EU offices in the US, major US-EU treaties, and a site for "Europe," the EU's official magazine for American consumption).
• The National League of Cities: This organization is dedicated to advancing the public interest, building democracy and community, and strengthening the capacity of local governance. Its membership consists of local governments and state municipal leagues.
• President: This site is designed to provide access for scholars to presidential documents held by the National Archives and Records Administration and the Presidential Libraries System. Covers each president from Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton.
• Roll Call Online: Roll Call Online is the electronic version of newspaper/newsletter published for internal use by members of Congress and their staffs. Its focus is on specific current processes and larger policy issues.
• Roper Center: This site represents a unique resource providing access to more than 10,000 survey files in addition to the Japanese and Latin American Data Banks. Polls receive bibliographic descriptions: title, survey organization, sponsor, dates, sample size, nature of sample, interview method, variables, and an abstract. Excellent reference for public opinion information.
• The United States Conference of Mayors: This association is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more.

Subdiscipline-related sites

• The Hannah Arendt Papers includes her research and writing about totalitarianism.
• Canadian Politics on the Web
• The Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Governors and President as well as American political trends. Readers rely upon it for objective information and analysis about who is running in what races, what the most important dynamics are in the races, who's ahead and what factors to look for as the campaigns progress
• The Electronic Policy Action Network: The Electronic Policy Network represents the combination of over 30 think tanks, policy institutes, and research institutions that are U. S.-based. They primarily offer a liberal point of view.
• First: Facts on International Relations and Security Trends: consists of information on all aspects of conflict and general country information.
• FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources: FindLaw serves as an impressive guide to U. S. case law, legal codes, law review articles, law schools, legal consultants, legal organizations, and links to state and international law. .
• The National Security Archive: This site is an independent, nongovernmental, nonprofit institution. Its primary mission is as a clearinghouse for declassified U. S. documents obtained through the Freedom of information Act.
• opensecrets.org: Web site for Center for Responsive Politics. It is a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics and its efforts on elections and public policy.
• Political Science Resources on the Web: This highly-rated Web site (Magellan 4-Star Site and Lycos Top 5%) provides links to area studies, class assignments, dissertations, foreign politics, indexes, international relations, news media, periodicals, statistics, think tanks, and many more.
• Europa: Europa serves as a guide to the European Union and its subordinate bodies. It is available in five languages. Its four basic files are: "ABC" (FAQs), "Institutions," "News," and "Policies."
• Israel Foreign Ministry: Available in English, French, or Spanish, this site gives information about Israel focusing on five different categories: structure of the foreign ministry, an outline of the Israeli government, an overview of the peace process with the Palestinians, FAQs about Israel, and an updated supplementary section about recent developments.
• LII: A search engine maintained by Cornell University Law School. Its purpose is to use digital information technology in the delivery of legal information.
• Political Database of the Americas: a comprehensive resource of current primary source documents and political information about Western Hemisphere politics.
• Project Vote Smart: Project Vote Smart is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing citizens with information about the political system, issues, elected officials, and candidates from the state legislative level up to the presidency.
• The United Nations: This is the Web site for the United Nations and its subordinate bodies such as UNESCO and the World Court. Many United Nations documents are provided in fulltext.
• University of Minnesota Human Rights Library: This site consists of documents updated daily such as treaties and international agreements, regional materials, U. S. human rights documents, bibliographies, course syllabi, asylum, refugee materials, and links to other sites.

Electronic journals

• American Spectator: A conservative periodical concerning current political issues.
• The Atlantic Unbound: This is the site for the Atlantic Monthly's home on the Web. It covers the arts and literature, politics, society, and digital culture.
• Congressional Quarterly: The site for the electronic version of the highly-respected print publication. Reports on U. S. legislators' voting records, supreme court decisions, and presidential speeches and news conferences. 1990 - present. Covers all areas of history. Usual format is four feature articles and book reviews.
• Harvard Political Review: Calls itself America's preeminent undergraduate nonpartisan journal of politics and public policy.
• Political Science Quarterly: A nonpartisan journal aimed at both specialists and general readers with an interest in public and foreign affairs.
• The American Prospect Online: A liberal periodical that discusses current issues.
• National Journal Group's Policy Central: high quality nonpartisan source about politics and government.

Discussion lists and electronic conferences (Note: addresses subject to change)

• ACTVST-L: The political activists' discussion list. Subscribe : listserv@american.edu
• AFRIPOL: The African political affairs discussion list. Subscribe: listserv@uoguelph.ca
• H-POL: historynet discussion list for political history. Subscribe: listserv@ksu.edu
• UNT-LPBR: The law and politics book review discussion list. Subscribe: listserv@listserv@unt.edu

This resource guide was developed by Paul Burnam, Public Services Librarian, from four sources: Mauer, Christine and Sheets, Tara E., eds. Encycylopedia of Associations. 32nd ed. 3 vols. Detroit: Gale, 1996. "The Web Issue: Special Supplement." Choice 34 (1997): 86-91. The politics sections of the Tile and Yahoo directories supplied the rest of the source links.