Students
Chapter 1: The Basics of Democracy
Core Documents of Our Democracy
https://www.gpo.gov/libraries/core_docs.htm
This website provides documents that are essential to the government of the United States.
American Government and Politics Online
http://www.thisnation.com/index.html
This resource is the online complement to a political science textbook, but it also provides information about American democracy and government in the United States.
C-Span
C-Span is a network that broadcasts television and radio programming. On their website, they provide information about current political events and government institutions.
Our Documents
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/index.php?flash=true&
Our Documents provides documents about the democracy of the United States and is a resource for citizens to learn about the history of American government.
Politics: Who Gets What, When, and How
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjapkY9ODPQ
This short YouTube animated video explores Laswell’s famous definition of politics—“who gets what, where, and when.” Do you find the comparisons between individual behavior, such as bargaining for a good price when you buy something, and governmental behavior, such as legislative debate, to be valid comparisons? Does Laswell’s definition contribute to the common public perception that politics is a “dirty word”?
What Is Democracy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yh9Cyu2KZw
This short video provides a brief explanation of what democracy is and how it differs from other forms of government. What similarities and differences do you notice between the “four basic elements” of democracy described in this video and the “core principles” articulated in your text? The presenter in this video proposes that active participation is a basic element of democracy, yet voter turnout in the United States is very low compared with many other democracies. Does the relative lack of citizen participation in the United States diminish our democracy, or is it the opportunity to participate that is most important?
Chapter 2: The American Constitution
All About the Constitution
A comprehensive website devoted to understanding the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation.
Constitutional Law and the Supreme Court
http://constitution.findlaw.com/
This Congressional Research Service website provides scholarly analysis of constitutional law issues and court cases relating to those issues.
The Articles of Confederation
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html
This Library of Congress website provides a wealth of information about the Articles of Confederation, which served as the first constitution of the United States, from 1777 to 1789.
Timeline of the Revolutionary War
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/revwartimeline.htm
This interactive site provides a timeline of the major events in our war for independence. A review of these historical events provides an important context for understanding both the Articles of Confederation and the debate over the Constitution.
Liberty! A PBS Chronicle of the American Revolution
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/
This companion site to the PBS documentary series provides useful contextual information for understanding the Constitutional Convention and the political culture of early America.
A Daily Diary of the Constitutional Convention
http://constitution.org/dfc/dfc_0000.htm
This website provides detailed minutes of the Constitutional Convention, as recorded by James Madison.
The National Archives
The National Archives provides a comprehensive official repository of American archival records.
The Federalist Papers
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html
The Library of Congress website offers access to all of the Federalist papers at this website. The Federalist Papers were a series of editorial pieces written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay advocating for the ratification of the Constitution.
All You Want to Know About the Framing of the Constitution
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/
This site provides the backgrounds of those in attendance and other pertinent facts about the framing of the United States Constitution.
Documents associated with the framing of the Constitution have been collected by Yale University’s Avalon Project (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/).
Federalist v. the Anti-Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html)
The Anti-Federalist Papers (www.anamericanvision.com/freedom_documents/anti_federalist_papers/) New Constitution
Amending the Constitution
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/usconstitution/a/constamend.htm
Provides information about amending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
A Conservative Perspective of Maintaining Individual Liberties
The CATO institute is a conservative think tank dedicated to the principles of individual liberty and limited government.
Chapter 3: Federalism
Federalism: The American Partnership
http://theamericanpartnership.com/federalism-links/
The American Partnership site provides a list of links and resources, compiled by J. Wesley Leckrone of Widener University, for better understanding American federalism.
The Federalist Papers
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html
A collection of articles written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay advocating for the Constitution. The Federalist Papers also discuss many of the principles that are important components of the federal government.
Anti-Federalist Papers
www.anamericanvision.com/freedom_documents/anti_federalist_papers/
In contrast to the federalists, there were those that were opposed to the Constitution. This resource provides most of the Anti-Federalist Papers, which some of the ideas were eventually added to the Constitution.
Conceptions of Federalism
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_fedr.html
There are many different conceptions of federalism, and each of them provides a particular perspective on the proper balance between national and state powers. This website explains the differences between these conceptions, as well as the different types of powers that exist under federalism. There are a variety of informative links provided here that can help you explore these diverging viewpoints on federalism.
United States Census Bureau
The official website of the U.S Census Bureau, which provides detailed statistical information such as demographics about cities and states in the federal system.
The National Conference of State Legislatures
The official website of the NCSL, a bipartisan organization providing information and resources to state policy makers, offers a state-centered perspective on federalism.
Federal Funding Arrangements and the Drinking Age
A National Youth Rights Association Analysis of the Drinking Age Policy
Federal funding arrangements like grants-in-aid, general revenue sharing, and categorical grants do more than just provide states with the resources to implement federally mandated policies—they also provide the federal government with important leverage that can be used to influence state laws. The national minimum drinking age of 21 is one such example. In order for states to be eligible for federal highway funds, states must enforce a minimum drinking age of 21 years. The NYRA believes that this is a bad policy as the result of national elected officials exerting undue pressure on the states for political reasons. What would the framers of the Constitution have thought about the division of national and state authority on this issue?
Reason TV Critique of the Drinking Age: Is It Time to Lower the Drinking Age?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qQzYUZ_MNU
This short television piece exploring the pros and cons of the current drinking age policy highlights the interaction of interest groups and government officials at both the federal and state level. Specifically, it focuses on state-level government employees (university presidents) challenging a national lobbying organization (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) to seek a change in federal policy.
Federalism, Gay Marriage, and Legalization of Marijuana
Political analyst Jonathan Rauch explores the similarities between the policy debates over gay marriage and legalization of marijuana, and how state and federal authorities struggle to reconcile major differences between state and federal policy. Consider how these policy debates highlight the differences between different conceptions of federalism like nation-centered, state-centered, and dual federalism.
Education Policy and Federalism
No Child Left Behind: A Federal Effort to Equalize Achievement Among the States
http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html
President Bush’s major educational initiative increased the role of the federal government in the traditionally state-led area of educational policy. Many states and interest groups were not enthusiastic about the increased role of the federal government in mandating educational policies for the states. In particular, conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institute were critical of these efforts, as seen in the links below.
Federalism in Education Policy Made Simple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebf1HLiZeyY
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, produced this short animated piece to critique the increased role of the federal government in education policy. Do you find the comparison between the homeowner’s association and the federal government to be a valid one? Is education policy comparable to lawn maintenance? Why or why not? In the cartoon example here, do you believe it is possible for a homeowner’s organization to ever play a constructive role in the neighborhood, or is this type of organization always a negative force?
A New New Federalism: Revisiting the Federal Role in Education Policy
http://educationnext.org/a-new-new-federalism/
This editorial piece by two scholars at the conservative-leaning Hoover Institute suggests that there may be a “middle-ground” between federally mandated programs for education and a completely decentralized, state-led approach to education policy. Do you find their recommendations to be an effective compromise between state-centered and nation-centered federalism?
The Case for Common Core Standards: A State-Led Effort to Create National Standards
In this final example of organizations seeking a proper balance between state and federal authority in education, the “core standards” movement seeks to let states themselves develop a consensus on national standards for education. Rather than have the federal government mandate standards (and pressure states to adopt them by linking education funding to the adoption of federal standards), this approach makes state adoption voluntary. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? Is this a more promising compromise between state-centered and nation-centered federalism?
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
American Civil Liberties Union
Difference Between Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbwsF-A2sTg
This video serves as an overview of civil rights and civil liberties. Often these terms are used interchangeably, but they are actually very different. Our civil liberties, contained in the Bill of Rights, once only protected us from the federal government, but slowly these liberties have been incorporated to protect us from the states. In this video the presenter takes a look at how this has happened and the Supreme Court cases that got us here.
Separation Between Church and State
Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.
Freedom of Religion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8dI1GTWCk4
The presenter looks at the First Amendment and your right to freedom of religion. He examines some significant Supreme Court decisions and talks about how they’ve affected our interpretations of the law with respect to stuff like animal sacrifice and prayer in schools.
Legal Information Institute
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/unreasonable_search_and_seizure
The website publishes electronic versions of core materials in numerous areas of the law, both on the web and in other electronic products. They range from the Constitution to the U.S. Code, from Supreme Court decisions to the Code of Federal Regulations.
Congressional Prayer Caucus
http://forbes.house.gov/prayercaucus/about.aspx
This website is based on a congressman’s effort to unite other congresspersons to engage in the legislative process to protect the ability of every American — of all faiths or no faith — to exercise the First Amendment right to the free exercise of their religion.
Freedom of Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zeeq0qaEaLw
This video provides a crash course on the issue of Free Speech. The presenter discusses a few significant Supreme Court cases that have gotten us to our current definition of free speech, and we'll also discuss some of the more controversial aspects of free speech – like hate speech.
Chapter 5: Civil Rights
The following two sites trace the evolution of blacks and women in Congress. The site is a collaborative project between the Office of the Historian and the Clerk of the House's Office of Art and Archives. Together, the offices serve as the House’s institutional memory, a resource for Members, staff, and the general public.
Blacks in Congress
http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Black-Americans-in-Congress/
This site traces the evolution of blacks in the United States conference.
Women in Congress
http://history.house.gov/Exhibition-and-Publications/WIC/Women-in-Congress/
Ethnic Groups in Congress
http://www.ethnicmajority.com/congress.htm
This site provides multiple resources that focus on all of the United States congresspersons of color.
Native Americans
http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/native.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
This source provides multiple resources related to Civil Rights. This particular sites focuses on Native Americans.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights
https://www.hrw.org/topic/lgbt-rights
This is a human rights site that focuses on the rights of all people. This particular site focuses on LGBT rights.
Women’s Rights
https://www.hrw.org/topic/womens-rights
This is a human rights site that focuses on the rights of all people. This particular site focuses on women’s rights.
American Disability Act
http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/fs-ada.cfm
This is the official website for information related to the American Disability Act.
Voter ID Laws
http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx
This site provides a discussion of voter identification laws and provides interactive maps that describe the law by state. This site is maintained by the National Council of State Legislatures.
Chapter 6: Interest Groups
U.S Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber of Commerce represents companies and small businesses interests. They are made up of local chambers from across the country.
American Association of Retired Persons
One of the country’s largest interest groups that advocates for the interests of people over 50.
National Special Interest Groups
http://votesmart.org/interest-groups#.Vq-LzrIrLIU
Project Vote Smart provides a list of interest groups as well as ratings and descriptions of the organizations.
National Rifle Association
The NRA advocates for gun laws and protecting the Second Amendment.
Open Secrets: The Center for Responsive Politics
http://www.opensecrets.org/about/
The Center for Responsive Politics is an independent, nonpartisan organization tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Consider how lobbying through the use of campaign contributions relates to the core principles articulated in Chapter 1, and how the values of free expression and political equality conflict with one another in this issue area. Why is it difficult to find a proper balance between free expression and political equality in campaign finance? And what role does transparency play in the promotion of democratic values?
How It Happens: Lobbyists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzXfIyQ45vk
Minnesota Public Television cartoonist David Gillette explains the important role played by lobbyists. Although the focus here is on the state legislature, the principles apply equally to the Congress. Despite the negative image that most Americans have of lobbyists, it is important to remember that they also have an important role to play in terms of providing expertise.
Chapter 7: Political Parties
Directory of U.S. Political Parties
http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm
This website provides a list of all of the political parties in the United States. It also includes information about the major parties and their leaders as well as summaries and comments about other third parties in the country that are not often talked about.
The Democratic Party
The official website of the Democratic Party, one of the two major parties in the United States, offers information about the positions and policy recommendations on which the party campaigns. The Democratic Party promotes a more liberal ideological agenda, and believes in the power of government to promote equal opportunity and to improve the quality of life of citizens through social welfare programs and regulation of business.
The Republican Party (also known as the GOP, or “Grand Old Party”)
The website of the Republican Party offers a conservative counterpoint to the liberal platform of the Democratic Party, promoting the value of smaller, less intrusive government, lower tax rates, and the preservation of traditional social values.
The Libertarian Party
The Libertarian Party is an example of a “third party” in the United States, i.e. a smaller party that has little chance of winning national elections because of our winner-take-all electoral system. If third parties have such a difficult time winning elections, what value do you see in their political activities? Can you think of instances in which the two major parties have borrowed, or co-opted, important policy positions from a minor party like the Libertarian Party?
The Green Party
The Green Party is another third party in the United States that pursues a more liberal political agenda. How do minor parties like the Green Party affect the outcome of national elections, given that their candidates have very little chance of winning? Do you think Ralph Nader’s run for president in 2000 may have contributed to Al Gore’s defeat in the Electoral College that year? Why or why not?
Constitution USA with Peter Sagal: Political Parties
http://www.pbs.org/tpt/constitution-usa-peter-sagal/we-the-people/political-parties/
The framers of the Constitution, particularly James Madison, found political parties to be distasteful and antithetical to rational governing. Why were they so fearful of parties? Would today’s political climate confirm their worst fears?
How It Happens: Party Caucus Meetings
Party caucuses are private meetings of parties to plan their strategies for achieving their legislative and electoral goals. In this illustrated essay, cartoonist David Gillette discusses the importance of party caucus meetings. In what ways do party caucuses have to consider the interactions between the party in the electorate, the party in government, and the party organization?Chapter 8: The Mass Media and Politics
Gallup
The Gallup organization is a research-oriented organization that is best known for its public opinion polls. They also publish news and data on political topics as well as current events.
The Cagle Post
This resource offers political cartoons which highlight major issues surrounding politics as well as political candidates.
FactCheck.org
The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters, and their FactCheck.org website is designed to actively monitor the factual accuracy of news reporting. By offering a critical evaluation of the accuracy of media reporting, FactCheck.org strives to promote a better-informed electorate and to hold news agencies accountable for the quality of their reporting.
Snopes: Debunking Misinformation in the Internet Age
With the rise of the Internet and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter as a preferred source of information for so many people, there has been growing confusion about how to distinguish what is true and what is not. Snopes is a website dedicated to researching and debunking misinformation on the Internet. As an informed consumer of information, how do you determine whether or not something you have seen on the Internet is true? With the rising popularity of “memes” (internet graphics designed to quickly spread an idea from person to person in a “viral” manner), are people becoming less concerned with proper sourcing of information and less interested in verifiable evidence?
Major News Outlets
Generally considered to be news outlets that have a liberal bias:
CNN
www.cnn.com
MSNBC
ABC
CBS
The New York Times
Generally considered to be news outlets that have a conservative bias:
FOX News
The Wall Street Journal
Chapter 9: Public Opinion and Political Socialization
The Political Compass and Spatial Representation of Ideology
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
Ideology is a consistent set of values, attitudes, and beliefs about the appropriate role of government in society. The “political compass” self-test can provide a rough measure of your own ideology to help you compare your own position with that of our political leaders. The “political compass” presents your results in a two-dimensional graphical format that is a spatial representation of the concept of ideology. Spatial representations such as these provide a useful visual representation of more abstract concepts. Building on this approach, scholars are able to develop spatial models that convey important relationships between key variables in political science. For example, Poole and Rosenthal have used spatial models of Congress to visually demonstrate the growth of ideological polarization in Congress, as seen in the video below (note how individual members “drift” ideologically over time and occasionally switch their party affiliation):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOKK79n7Y8o
Gallup.com
http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx
The Gallup organization is one of the oldest and most respected polling organizations in the United States. Gallup conducts daily surveys that capture American public opinion on a wide range of issues and events.
HuffPost Pollster (formerly Pollster.com)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/pollster/
This website provides information on, and links to, a wide variety of current public opinion poll results. Browse the website to get a sense for current trends in American public opinion. Do you think the tremendous number of polls conducted every day are helpful to policy makers? Why or why not?
Real Clear Politics
http://www.realclearpolitics.com
One of the more well-known “poll aggregators” (a site that averages out the results of many polls in an effort to produce a more accurate measure of public opinion), Real Clear Politics provides poll results and analysis of a wide range of political issues of interest to Americans.
Cartoonist Group
http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/subject/The-Public+Opinion-Comics-and-Cartoons.php
This site offers political cartoons on current political topics and issues. They offer political cartoons from 50 of the best political cartoonists.
The Pew Research Center: People and the Press
The Pew Research Center conducts survey polls on Americans regarding matters of public opinion. They also gauge how the media impacts matters of public opinion. In addition to survey reports, they also provide commentary on political issues.
The Polling Report
This website is a nonpartisan website that provides many resources and polls on public opinion. It is also categorized by topic and subtopics.
Chapter 10: Elections
Vote for Me: An Illustrated Essay by David Gillette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNVv4IOSUL0
Why do people run for elected office in the first place? Gillette suggests that running for office is not a “normal” thing to do, and this may affect the kind of government we have. Your text discusses the concept of the “invisible primary” as the process of individual candidates deciding to run for office. What effect does the “invisible primary” have on the candidate pool? Does the increased role of money, advertising, and mass media have a detrimental effect on who decides to run?
A Cartoonist’s View of the 2008 National Party Conventions
In 2008, political cartoonist David Gillette attended both of the major party national conventions and provided illustrated essays providing a summary of each day’s activities and events. Do the national conventions serve a practical, substantive purpose for the parties, or are they primarily pep rallies designed to excite and mobilize the party-in-the-electorate?
Preparing for the Conventions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsIJegu-tSM&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=33
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RISjpAFeCyI&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=31
The Democratic National Convention
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmnmqFN6vCI&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxdgqRmp8WQ&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGZZKhrTmdE&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMIH0EtmWwQ&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsP2w8lSmp8&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=26
The Republican National Convention
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMUD2dfhL80&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF8cvRo6ZNk&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9iD5zxqceM&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQLsCjL1mZM&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=22
The Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission is the agency that administers and enforces federal campaign finance laws.
The Electoral College
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/
This website from the National Archives provides information on the history and function of the Electoral College. The “Historical Election Results” section allows you to compare how the national popular vote and the electoral vote differ. How many times has the electoral vote winner actually lost the popular vote?
FiveThirtyEight.com
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/
Statistician Nate Silver has produced the most accurate electoral forecasts in the last two presidential elections. Silver’s blog, fivethirtyeight.com, offers a wide range of forecasts in addition to the presidential election, including congressional races, state political races, and even sports predictions (Silver’s original passion was baseball statistics, and his current approach to political projections is an extension of methods he originally developed for forecasting the future success of baseball players).
The Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting
http://www.brennancenter.org/publication/citizens-guide-redistricting
The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law is the premier source of information for citizens who want to learn more about the process of legislative redistricting and how it affects elections.
Overrepresentation of Small States in the Electoral College and the Senate
Small states like Wyoming highly distort the vote in both the Electoral College and the Senate (recall that a state’s electoral vote is equal to its congressional representation – i.e. even the smallest states get a minimum of three electoral votes because they are guaranteed two senators). How does the overrepresentation of these small states affect political equality in the United States? Does it undermine majority rule in any way?
United States Election Assistance Commission
http://www.eac.gov/voter_resources/contact_your_state.aspx
This website provides information about elections in each of 50 states. It also includes an interactive map.
The Pew Charitable Trusts
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/election-initiatives/research-and-analysis
This link provides research on election systems and areas for change.
Chapter 11: Political Participation and Voting Behavior
Project Vote Smart
Project Vote Smart is a website dedicated to improving voter access to information in order to promote a better-informed electorate.
Rock the Vote
Founded in 1992 as a pop-culture movement to encourage greater participation among young voters, Rock the Vote has registered more than 5 million young voters over the years. To what extent do you think pop-culture outreach to youth—e.g. trying to frame voting as “hip”—is a useful strategy for promoting greater participation and engagement among young citizens?
The League of Women Voters
http://www.lwv.org/issues/protecting-and-engaging-voters
Among the many goals of The League of Women Voters, a central focus is on protecting and engaging voters in an effort to increase citizen participation in elections. The LWV website offers a number of articles relating to the importance of voting and of protecting voter rights.
American National Election Studies
http://www.electionstudies.org/
The ANES is devoted to the collection of high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation. The data collected by ANES helps researchers, policy makers, and journalists “better understand the theoretical and empirical foundations of national election outcomes.”
Registering to Vote
http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Voting/Register.shtml
USA.gov provides detailed information on voter eligibility, procedures for voter registration, and registration deadlines for all 50 states.
U.S. Voting and Election Resources
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/links.html
The National Archives Electoral College website provides links to a wide range of voter resources.
Voter ID Laws: A Necessary Protection Against Fraud, or an Attempt to Disenfranchise Voters?
This “one minute debate” from the Christian Science Monitor presents a quick overview of the debate over voter ID laws. Many states have argued that voters should be required to show a picture ID in order to vote in an effort to eliminate the possibility of voter fraud. Critics have protested, saying that groups like the poor and the elderly may be unfairly prevented from voting because financial or physical difficulties make it harder for them to obtain the required ID. Do you think the picture ID requirement is a valid restriction that protects the integrity of elections, or is it a thinly disguised barrier to the voting rights of particular groups, along the lines of literacy tests or poll taxes?
On the Issues
http://www.issues2000.org/default.htm
This website provides information to voters about candidates running for office. It makes it easy to compare candidates on issues as well as providing candidates’ statements on issues.
United States Election Project
http://www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/voter-turnout-data
This link provides previous elections’ voter turnout data. It provides national and state rates, as well as voter demographics.
Election Protection
http://www.866ourvote.org/issues/voter-challenges-voter-intimidation
This resource provides some examples of historical voting intimidation or challenges to voting.
Chapter 12: Congress
The House of Representatives
The official website of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Senate
The official website of the U.S. Senate.
Library of Congress THOMAS website
The Library of Congress provides a comprehensive legislative search engine for the U.S. Congress, which allows you to search through a wide range of legislative data such as bill sponsorships, committee actions, and roll call votes.
Roll Call
Since 1955, Roll Call has been the premier newspaper for Capitol Hill, covering all aspects of legislative politics and lawmaking.
C-SPAN Congressional Chronicle
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/congress/
C-SPAN’s Congressional Chronicle is a video archive of the proceedings of the U.S. Congress. Use the “Browse” or “Search” functions to find recordings of your representative and senators and learn what they have been saying and doing to represent your interests in Congress.
Ideology Ratings for Members of Congress
ADA Congressional Ideology Ratings
http://www.adaction.org/pages/publications/voting-records.php
The Americans for Democratic Action provides a liberalism score for each member's voting record.
ACU Congressional Ideology Ratings
The American Conservative Union rates the conservatism of each member's voting record (you will notice that the ACU ratings tend to be roughly the inverse of the ADA ratings, since more liberal members will be the least conservative, and vice versa).
Constitution USA with Peter Sagal: Is Gridlock Built into the Constitution?
http://www.pbs.org/tpt/constitution-usa-peter-sagal/we-the-people/political-gridlock-constitution/
Peter Sagal explores the possibility that the gridlock that we complain about in Congress may be by design. Why would the framers of the Constitution want to set up a legislative process that is intentionally slow and conflictual? Do you think the current level of gridlock in Congress is what the framers intended, or does it go beyond what they envisioned?
Dealing with the Filibuster: A One-Track Senate
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/opinion/10martin.html
Many contemporary critics of Congress believe that the overuse of the filibuster poses a serious threat to the legislative process. This article from the New York Times editorial page suggests a method for ending the overuse of the filibuster in the Senate.
How It Happens: Calling It Quits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaYt7Xmjzis&list=PLD25C263A4EF0B343&index=19
Political cartoonist David Gillette explores the causes and consequences of legislative retirements. Why do so few members of the legislature retire? While term limits remain a fairly popular idea with the general public, are there some potentially negative consequences that this illustrated essay on retirement brings to light?
Govtrack.us
This website tracks the United States Congress. They provide bill summaries and analysis as well as information about representatives in Congress.
Congressional Report Card
http://www.vis.org/crc/default.aspx
Provides information about “how well” each legislator in Congress is doing their job.
Chapter 13: The Presidency
The White House
The official website for the President and executive branch provides a variety of useful information and links on the history, function, and current activities of the President and executive branch institutions.
The American Presidency Project
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index.php
The American Presidency Project of the University of California, Santa Barbara is an impressive Internet archive containing over 100,000 documents relating to the study of the presidency.
The American Experience: The Presidents
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/collections/presidents/
This PBS documentary series profiles 15 of our presidents, offering biographical information as well as analyses of their accomplishments in office. All 15 episodes are available for viewing from this website.
The Miller Center for the American President
http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident
The Miller Center at the University of Virginia maintains this valuable storehouse of information on the U.S. presidency. In addition to biographical sketches of all of our presidents, the site also offers access to the public speeches of all of our presidents.
LBJ and the "Power to Persuade"
Richard Neustadt argued that presidential power is “the power to persuade.” In this phone conversation, President Lyndon Johnson uses nearly every conceivable technique of persuasion to convince Senator Richard Russell, a southern Senator whose constituency does not like Earl Warren, to serve with Chief Justice Warren on the Warren Commission. How many different techniques of persuasion can you identify in the conversation.
Choosing a Cabinet: If You Were President . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/11/us/politics/20081111_CABINET_PICKER.html
This interactive tool from 2008 allows you to revisit President Obama’s personnel decision making for his first term. What are the important considerations that you would take into account? How did the President’s actual decision making differ from what the online participants predicted?
Internet Links for the U.S. Presidency
http://cstl-cla.semo.edu/renka/PresidencyLinks.htm
This site provides a fairly comprehensive list of websites related to the study of the U.S. Presidency.
Petition Website
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/.
This site provides the various petitions that have been filed by citizens and provides instructions for filing new petitions. These petitions range from Real Time with Bill Maher to opposition to gun violence.
Office of Management and Budget Official Web Page
https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/gils_gil-home
This site provides details related to the OMB, including the director and the organization chart and a narrative summarizing the current budget supported by the President.
Presidential Style and Character
http://www.ushistory.org/gov/7e.asp
This site provides background information on presidents’ character and temperament. It is derived from Barber’s typology on presidents’ personality and performance.
Electoral College
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html
This site provides the history of the Electoral College and various components of the electoral process.
Signing Statements
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/signingstatements.php
The American Presidency Project (APP) was founded in 1999 and is hosted at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Their archives include 119,011 presidential documents, from Washington to Obama.
Chapter 14: The Bureaucracy
Official U.S. Executive Branch Websites
https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/fedgov.html
This provides links to the various departments managed by the executive branch. Most of the federal bureaucracy is housed in the executive branch, although there are several departments that fall under the legislative and judicial branches.
The General Services Administration’s Overview of Federal Regulatory Policy
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104848
The GSA is one of the central management agencies of the federal government. This website provides a brief overview of federal regulatory policy, and several links to other important regulatory agencies and reports on federal regulation.
The Organization of the Bureaucracy
http://www.ushistory.org/gov/8b.asp
This resource provides information as to the different types of entities that make up the federal bureaucracy. It also provides some insight into the difference between departments headed by the cabinet and other organizations managed by the executive branch.
The Federal Register
https://www.federalregister.gov
The Federal Register is published by The National Archives and Records Administration. The Federal Register is published on a daily basis and includes reports and information that comes from the work of federal agencies.
Chapter 15: The Federal Judiciary
SCOTUSblog
SCOTUSblog provides live, real-time reporting of Supreme Court hearings as they happen and offers analysis of decisions and opinions as they are made.
Empirical Legal Studies Blog
Like the Monkey Blog, this is another website founded by and run by political scientists. The bloggers on this site seek to bring legal scholarship and empirical political science research together and promote greater dialogue between scholars who are focused on judicial and legal research.
The Oyez Project
The Oyez Project of the Chicago-Kent College of Law is a multi-media archive devoted to documenting the work of the Supreme Court. The site strives to be “a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955.”
The Supreme Court: A PBS Documentary Series
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/about/index.html
This four-part miniseries provides an in-depth historical analysis of the Supreme Court and the important decisions it has made, particularly since the 1930s. All four episodes are readily available for viewing from this website.
FindLaw
www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html
This resource provides information related to laws of the United States. It includes links to both federal and state laws, court cases, statutes, etc.
The American Bar Association
The American Bar Association is the association for lawyers in the United States. Although membership to the ABA is voluntary, most lawyers are members of the ABA as they set the standard for ethics and credentials for law schools in the United States.
United States Courts
The official website of the federal judiciary.
Chapter 16: Core Democratic Principles and Public Policy
The Policy Agendas Project
Housed at the University of Texas at Austin, the Policy Agendas Project is a massive storehouse of data on policy agendas in the United States since World War II. The data stored here allow researchers to track and study changes in the policy agenda across all of the institutions of government and also the media.
Policy Almanac Listings of Major Public Policy Organizations
http://www.policyalmanac.org/directory/General-Organizations.shtml
The Policy Almanac provides a listing of organizations and “think tanks” that study public policy problems and offer analysis and recommendations to policy makers. These organizations cover a wide range of ideological ground, which reflects the pluralist values of our free democratic society.
United States Congress
The United States Congress develops public policy and decides what issues it will discuss each session. Their website includes information about the current issues and legislation.