Politics
Table of Contents:
- General Political Science Resources
- Data Archives
- United States
- International
- Additional Finding Aids
General Political Science Resources
- Almanac of American Politics. Includes state profiles with statistics on population, economy, and presidential votes. Some ranking charts such as congressional districts by population criteria and presidential election results. Some campaign finance data. Alternative access: print book.
- International Political Science Abstracts. Use this index to search the secondary literature to identify research studies and data sets.
- Vital Statistics on American Politics offers a rich resource of data on the full spectrum of American politics. It is designed to help the reader interpret and comprehend statistical material. Included are more than 200 tables and charts plus information on elections, legislative term limits, approval ratings of Congress and the president, and the national debt. In addition, you will find statistical data on PACs, public opinion and voting, media, social policy, economic policy, and foreign and military policy.
- Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) contains data on election returns and electoral behavior for the United States and some foreign countries. Please search the archive for a complete listing.
- Browse by subjects such as Conflict, Aggression, Violence, Wars; Government Structures, Policies, and Capabilities; Legal Systems; and Legislative and Deliberative Bodies.
- Search by keyword such as politics, government, elections, and more.
- Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
- Search or browse for studies and read codebooks. MSU does not currently maintain a subscription for data downloads.
- Federal Election Commission. Campaign Finance Reports and Data. In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections.
- Data sets from the FEC are available in the ICPSR Campaign Expenditures in the United States Series.
- OpenSecrets.org is run by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. This independent website tracks the influence of money on politics and public policy. Data and analysis is provided for presidential and congressional elections, congressional committee members, personal financial disclosures, travel, political parties, industries, lobbying, political action committees and 527s. Also includes historical (back to 1990) and local information and a donor lookup feature.
- Raw data sets are available for campaign finance, lobbying, 527s and personal finances.
- American National Election Study Series is the oldest continuous series of survey data investigating electoral behavior and attitudes in the United States. Alternative access: ICPSR, SDA Archive.
- National Annenberg Election Survey. The 2000 and 2004 National Annenberg Election Surveys are the largest academic public opinion studies of the American electorate ever conducted within a campaign cycle. Adults in the United States were interviewed by telephone about their beliefs, attitudes, intentions and behavior relevant to the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. Alternative access: CD-ROM with book.
- America Votes is published biennially by Congressional Quarterly and includes official, state-certified election returns by county and by district for the House, Senate and gubernatorial elections, including key data on the presidential election.
- CQ Voting and Elections Collection integrates a wealth of data, authoritative analyses, concise explanations, and historical material to provide a powerful research and reference tool on the American voter, major and minor political parties, campaigns and elections, and historical and modern races for Congress, the presidency, and governorships.
- Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. While full access must be purchased, this web site provides a lot of basic information for free. It includes election results, polls, and predictions, Electoral College information, election dates, and more. The information is very current.
- Federal Elections Project from American University meshes the 2000 U.S. federal election results at the precinct level with the demographic data from the 2000 U.S. Census.
- Record of American Democracy, 1984-1990 data provides election returns, socioeconomic summaries, and demographic details about the American public at unusually low levels of geographic aggregation. Alternative access: ICPSR.
- United States Historical Election Returns Series data covers the years 1788-1990 and consists of several discrete datasets that contain county- and state-level returns for all elections to the offices of president, governor, United States senator, and United States representative.
- U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk: Election Statistics. Since 1920, the Clerk of the House has collected and published the official vote counts for federal elections from the official sources among the various states and territories.
- Federal Election Commission.
- U.S. Census Bureau.
- Federal, State, & Local Governments. Multiple surveys including Census of Government, Government Employment & Payroll, Government Finance Statistics, Federal Spending, and Tax Statistics.
- Older Census Bureau government surveys are available in print in the Census Alcove. These titles include Financial Statistics of Cities and Census of Governments with some variations.
- Voting and Registration Data from the Current Population Survey.
- Federal, State, & Local Governments. Multiple surveys including Census of Government, Government Employment & Payroll, Government Finance Statistics, Federal Spending, and Tax Statistics.
- U.S. House of Representatives. Office of the Clerk.
- Election Statistics. Since 1920, the Clerk of the House has collected and published the official vote counts for federal elections from the official sources among the various states and territories.
- Michigan Department of State.
- Previous Election Information. State primary results and general election race results.
- Note: For state election results please consult each individual State for the Department of State or equivalent unit.
International
- Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) is a collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world. Participating countries include a common module of survey questions in their post-election studies. The resulting data are deposited along with voting, demographic, district and macro variables. The studies are then merged into a single, free, public dataset for use in comparative study and cross-level analysis. Alternative access: ICPSR.
- Database of Political Institutions (DPI) is a project of the World Bank. The DPI contains 108 variables for 177 countries over the years 1975-2006. The variables provide details about elections, electoral rules, type of political system, party composition of the opposition and government coalitions, and the extent of military influence on government.
- Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800-2007 continues the Polity research tradition of coding the authority characteristics of states in the world system for purposes of comparative, quantitative analysis.
- Roll Call Votes in the European Parliament has collected how each MEP voted in each record (roll-call vote) in the first five elected European Parliaments.
- VoteWorld archives, maintains, and distributes datasets of roll-call voting from legislative bodies throughout the international community.
- World Development Indicators from the World Bank. Contains statistical data for over 600 development indicators and time series data from 1960-present for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators.
- Election Study Links from CSES is a list of national election studies around the world.
- Australian Election Study is a mail-back survey that asks Australian voters about their political attitudes and behavior at the time of the Federal Election.
- British Election Studies series are housed in the UK Data Archive.
- Canada National Election Study states that the main objective is to explain what makes people decide to vote (or not to vote), and, if they do, what makes them decide to support a given party or candidate, and why parties gain or lose ground from one election to another. Alternative access: ICPSR.
- European Election Studies are about electoral participation and voting behaviour in European Parliament elections, but more than that. They are also concerned with the evolution of an EU political community and a European public sphere, with citizens' perceptions of and preferences about the EU political regime, and with their evaluations of EU political performance. Alternative access: UK Data Archive.
- Irish National Election Study was conducted in the immediate aftermath of the General Election held in June 2002. Funded by the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions of the Higher Education Authority, this is the first full-scale election study to be conducted in Ireland. Available from the Irish Social Science Data Archive.
- Israel National Election Studies began in 1969. The two basic elements have been a pre-election survey based on a national sample and an edited volume regarding major aspects of the elections. The aim of the Israel National Election Studies is to investigate voting patterns, public opinion, and political participation in Israel.
- New Zealand Election Study main source of data are questionnaires that are posted to randomly selected registered electors across the country immediately following each election. Questions focus on voting choices, political opinions, and social and demographic characteristics.
- Election Results Archive from the Center on Democratic Performance at Binghamton University. Covers 134 countries back to 1974.
- Election Results by Country is a list compiled by Wikipedia. Provides a helpful starting point and list of all countries in one place.
- Elections in Western Europe since 1815: electoral results by constituencies. This book by Daniele Caramani includes a CD-ROM. Published in 2000.
- International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Election Guide provides timely and accurate information on national elections around the world.
- Psephos – Adam Carr’s Election Archive includes election statistics from 176 countries displayed geographically and broken down into local political regions. Has a special section on Australia.
- Library Catalog. Example subject terms include: Elections -- United States -- Statistics, Voting -- United States -- Statistics and Primaries -- United States -- Statistics.
- Statistical Resources on the Web: Political Science from UM Government Documents.
- See Also Public Opinion & Social Attitudes, International Development