Political Science *

General Resources

• CQ Press U.S. Political Stats – provides access to extensive data on Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidency, including facts and figures on performance, economic and population indicators.
• Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Search Engine -- official U.S government website that facilitates searching
• Government's Attic -- provides electronic copies of hundreds of interesting Federal Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, including historical documents, reports on items in the news, and various oddities.
• MetaLib -- a federated searching tool that retrieves reports, articles, and citations by simultaneously searching across fifty-three federal government databases.
• Policy Agendas Project -- website devoted to collecting and organizing data from various archived sources to trace changes in the national policy agenda and public policy outcomes since the Second World War.
• Political Advocacy Groups --a list of national organizations that that personally contact, pressure, and/or "educate" Representatives and Senators; conduct and disseminate policy-oriented research; organize grassroots citizen activism; and provide financial resources to Congressional candidates.
• Regulations.gov -- provides one-stop, public access to information related to current and forthcoming regulations issued by the federal government. Users can streamline search results with date ranges, select specific U.S. government departments or agencies, and view results by docket or file folder.
• RealClearPolitics -- an independent political web site that culls together and publishes the commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day.
• The United States Government Manual -- provides includes leadership tables and describes agency activities and programs of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of Government, as well as activities and programs of quasi-official agencies and international organizations in which the United States participates as a member.
• USAFacts -- a non-profit open access site that gathers and makes searchable official statistical data from more than seventy federal government agencies, all fifty state governments, 39,000 county, municipal, and town governments, and 51,000 special district agencies [e.g., water, fire, school].

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

Below are the four special institutions created by Congressional statute to perform a national mission as a federal trust instrumentality:

National Gallery of Art – serves as a center of visual art, education, and culture. The collection includes more than 150,000 paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings spans the history of Western art with the purpose of showcasing some of the triumphs of human creativity.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – established in its authorizing statute in 1964, :  the center’s mission is to present classical and contemporary music, opera, drama, dance, and other performing arts from the United States and other countries.

Smithsonian Institution -- the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with twenty-one museums and the National Zoo—shaping the future by preserving heritage, discovering new knowledge, and sharing our resources with the world. The Institution was founded in 1846.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars – established by an Act of Congress in 1968 as the national, living memorial honoring President Woodrow Wilson, it is the nation's key non-partisan policy forum for conducting and sponsoring original scholarship and convenes balanced and inclusive dialogue through its programs, which cover all regions of the world and several major global issues to inform actionable ideas for the policy community. The center is governed by its own residentially appointed Board of Trustees and supported by public and private funds.