LibGuides: Political Science: Related Websites

US Government Websites

Core Documents of U.S. Democracy
This collection provides American citizens with direct online access to the basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society.

FDSys This link opens in a new window Federal Digital System: America's Authentic Government InformationFull text to bills, hearings, laws, reports, etc.

A - Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies
Find links to departments, agencies, state governments, and other boards, commissions, and committees.
Branches of Government
Learn more about the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. government.
Federal Executive Branch
The president is the head of the executive branch of the government, which includes many departments and agencies.
Federal Judicial Branch
The judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court, Lower Courts, Special Courts, and court support organizations.
Federal Legislative Branch
The legislative branch is the law making branch of government made up of the Senate, the House of Representatives, and agencies that support Congress.
Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties
Covers U.S. Government treaties with Native Americans from 1778-1883 (Volume II) and U.S. laws and executive orders concerning Native Americans from 1871-1971. Also known as Kappler’s Indian affairs : Laws and Treaties.
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Freely available online
THOMAS
In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, legislative information from the Library of Congress. THOMAS provides access to the following: Bills, Resolutions, Activity in Congress, Congressional Record, Schedules, Calendars, Committee Information, Presidential Nominations, Treaties, and Government Resources.
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Unrestricted access
USA.gov
The US Government's Official Web Portal.
Government made easy.
Search the government.
White House
Find out what the U.S. president's administration is doing, including concerns about current issues, news, and policies. Links to the different offices of the president's administration can be found, such as the president, vice president, cabinet, executive office, first lady, and White House staff.

Helpful Resources

Followthemoney.org: learn where politicians receive donations for their campaigns. This site is created by the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP).

Influence Explorer: find out how politicians are influenced by lobbying, campaign donations, and more.

Open Secrets: this site reveals where campaign money originates, provides information about lobbying, and analyzes the results of their findings.

Vote Smart: discover all kinds of information about politicians, like biographies, positions, voting record, speeches, and so forth.

MapLight: this organization sheds light on how wealthy individuals and company influence policy and politicians who need campaign donations in order to be successful.

GovTrack.us: this non-governmental organization follows the goings on of the U.S. government. They can help you make sense of current proposals, votes, bills, and other legislative activities.

PollingReport.com: search and browse for poll results on a large variety of political topics.

On the Issues: each political candidate's views on every issue are documented on this website.

Related Websites

CIA World Factbook
Created and maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency, this online resource contains country profiles for every nation, territory, political entity, or geographic location on the planet. This source is updated multiple times throughout the year.
Constitutions
Research the U.S. Constitution, state constitutions, plus information about constitutions from around the world.
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World Wide Web hyperlink
Declassified Documents
Find declassified US documents, whistleblower testimony, military plus intelligence publications, and eye-opening court cases.
Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera
Offers access to Latin American ephemeral items in the following categories: agrarian and rural issues, art and culture, children and youth, economics, gender, environment and ecology, human and civil rights, labor, minorities, ethnic and racial, politics and government, religion, socioeconomic conditions and development, and tourism.
Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)
Created and maintained by the FPRI, this site contains articles, interviews, audio and video clips, and more on current and long-standing issues in foreign policy.
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World Wide Web hyperlink
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
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World Wide Web hyperlink
International Government Information
Find links to information about foreign countries, governments, and international organizations.
National Security Archive
Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents, leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.
Presidential Powers
Understand the powers of the president as defined by the U.S. Constitution and interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Presidents - History and Grounds - The White House
Learn about the presidents, vice presidents, and first ladies of the United States, plus more.
Sunlight Foundation
This nonpartisan organization devotes itself to promoting transparent and accountable government with access to digitized government data.
Worldwide Governance Indicators
Empirical research and data gathered by the World Bank Group. They measure the quality of governance of 215 countries in six dimensions: voice and accountability; political stability and absence of violence; government efficiency; regulatory quality; rule of law; and control of corruption.
The WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
This is an Internet directory of over 2000 annotated links to high-quality English-language sources of information and analysis in many international and global studies topics. Sites are carefully selected for their long-term value, favoring those with cost-free, authoritative information and analysis online.