Who Governs in American Politics? We Use Data to Find Answers

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Resources for political science research on American politics. Topics include US political institutions, political elites (e.g. Trump and conservative media), state and local politics, US political history, and American political culture. Also see law, courts & justice (for resources on US Supreme Court) and political behavior (for behavior not uniquely American).

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ORIGINAL PROJECT: U.S. Presidents' Positions on Roll Call VotesPres. Tyler's Positions:
27th House 27th Senate
28th House 28th Senate

QUIZ YOURSELF: What is rape?

Unlawful sexual intercourse, by force or without legal or factual consent.

Answer: Hover over the box!More of this: Review Judicial Process

Teach Political Analysis

Theory & Concepts:
The Essentials of Political Analysis, 6th Edition. Classic introductory text, clear writing, helps students learn, great ancillaries. More info.

Companions for SPSS, Stata, Excel & R. Practice with software of your choice.

MORE FOR TEACHERS: Sample Course Syllabi featuring our textbooks, varied software, with/without paper assignments

Review Terms for 5 Minutes - Pick chapters or just press play for quick study

Run Live R Demos in Browser - Excellent for online teaching

Links to More Resources for Teaching Political Analysis

More Questions than Answers

Does the Median Voter Prefer Divided Government?
Hypothesis: Median voters prefer divided government. People distrust unified government and want ambition to check ambition. Is this always true (during wars and crises too)? When does it occur (only […]

MORE QUESTIONS: Simple Way to Reduce Bias in Teaching Evaluations?

Leveraging Television for Inmate Education: A Simple Solution for Expanding Educational Opportunities in Prisons

Watch and Learn


How to Create a Boxplot
Comparing numeric values across multiple categories (2:02).

MORE VIDEOS: Lecture Videos for The Essentials of Political Analysis

Learn How-To Do It with Video Tutorials for R, Stata, SPSS, and Excel

Blogs, Podcasts & Journals

Michigan Policy Wonk Blog: .Publicizes research relevant to state policymakers

Congress & the Presidency: .(Taylor & Francis) An interdisciplinary journal of political science and history that features articles on Congress, the President, the interaction between the two institutions, and national policy-making.

A Few Reasonable Words: .Podcast. A podcast from three professors trying desperately to soothe the frayed nerves of the American public with the comforting balm of political science.

National Political Science Review: .An annual refereed publication of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

Ballpark, The: .LSE US Centre's regular online audio show on US politics, policy, and research.

See All Political Science Blogs

American Politics Data Sites

Voteview Legacy Website: .Keith Poole's web site for data on U.S. Congress, well-organized, thoroughly documented, updated frequently.

State Data and Policy Actions to Address Coronavirus: .From the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Open States by the Sunlight Foundation: .A collection of tools that make it possible for citizens to track what is happening in their state's capitol by aggregating information from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Vital Statistics on the U.S. Congress: .Compiled by the Brookings Institution

Data.gov: .Guide to data from more than 100 agencies that provide data and trend information on such topics as economic and population trends, crime, education, health care, energy use and more

See All American Politics Data Sites

New American Politics Articles with Replication Data

No Right to Be Wrong: What Americans Think About Civil-Military RelationsRobert Ralston; Ronald R. Krebs (2023 est.)