Colorado Center for Civic Learning and Engagement

Promoting Civic Education in Colorado's K-12 Schools.

Resources: Research Sources

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American Communities Project County maps let you categorize your county and surrounding counties. Also contains a story bank. 

American Community Survey The U.S. Census Bureau conducts an annual survey collecting data on social, economic, and housing characteristics of American communities. 

American National Election Studies

Ballotpedia Encyclopedic site bringing together data, news, and general information on federal, state, and local election laws, processes, and outcomes.

What Works Cities – What Works Cities shares stories from cities that work. 

Federal, State, & Local Governments Main Page – Business & Industry – US Census Bureau The U.S. Census Bureau collects and publishes information on the structure and powers of state and local governments, data on public finance and public employment, and data on intergovernmental fiscal relations.  

Center for State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers Resources provided for teaching and research about America’s state constitutions and principles of republicanism, federalism, and constitutionalism.

Center for the Study of Federalism Features a news feed with access to current articles on federalism that includes state and local developments and perspectives.

Congressional Research Service Members of Congress may ask CRS to research a public policy problem for them. CRS Reports are legendary as a role model of how to do public policy research on steroids. 

Council of State Governments CSG publishes wide-ranging information on state government including the Book of the States, an annual review that provides scholarly studies on recent developments for each branch of state government and various state policy issue areas as well as federal-state and state-local relations. Archived volumes can be accessed for free. 

Education Commission of the States News and links to research and reports on state education policy. “ED Beat” provides a free subscription news service.

Fixes The New York Times opinion blog reports governmental and nongovernmental solutions to social problems

Governing an online magazine on state and local government, politics, and policy. 

Institute for Local Self-Reliance Key Studies: Why Local Matters Provides strategies and information for environmentally sound and equitable community development. 

Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California Elections results, articles, and working papers for current and previous years for state and local initiatives and referendums. 

National Civic League | Advancing civic engagement to create equitable, thriving communities Founded by Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis, and other municipal reformers in 1894 as the National Municipal League, the league seeks to promote good city governance and civic participation. It has published a quarterly journal, the National Civic Review, since 1912, which often contains news and articles about federalism and intergovernmental relations. National Civic Review  The League’s Quarterly Journal 

National Conference of State Legislatures  A national organization representing and serving the legislators and their staffs of the legislatures of the 50 states, commonwealths, and territories. Its site has a variety of resources, including State Legislatures magazine, that provide a window into the policy and governing issues facing state legislatures. 

National Conference of State Trial Judges  NCSTJ is the country’s oldest, largest, and most prestigious organization of general-jurisdiction trial judges. The conference acts as an advocate on issues affecting trial judges throughout the nation and represents their interests within the American Bar Association. 

National Governors Association NGA represents the governors of the 50 states, commonwealths, and territories. Its site includes a variety of online policy position statements and background publications on policy and governing issues facing governors. 

 National Institute on Money in State Politics The Institute is a nonpartisan organization that aggregates and makes available campaign finance information from all fifty states. Their longitudinal data includes state legislative and other state-wide elected offices. 

National League of Cities  NLC is the oldest and largest national organization representing municipal governments in the U.S. Its site collects guides, toolkits, policy analyses, research reports, and additional resources such as Cities 101 with course summaries on municipal government and challenges facing American cities. 

National Opinion Research Center Compilations of opinion polls from various sources

Pew Research Center The center is a “nonpartisan fact tank” reporting on issues and attitudes of American society and politics with extensive databases and analyses of public opinion, media, demographics, and other social science research. Also see Pew Center for State and Local Government  

 Publius: The Journal of Federalism | Oxford Academic Published quarterly, Publius is the world’s leading journal on federalism.

Real Clear Politics Brings together news coverage and averages public opinion poll results from a wide variety of sources (newspapers to twitter) across the political spectrum.

Route Fifty Daily source of state and local news 

State and Local Government Review: SAGE Journals Official journal of the Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management (SIAM) of the American Society for Public Administration, this quarterly journal publishes articles on state and local government politics, policy, and management.  

Statelocal The center submits amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of state and local governments. Its site presents articles and briefs pertaining to U.S. Supreme Court cases relating to federalism.

State Innovation Exchange Liberal policy research organization providing state legislative policy proposals. 

State Policy Network Federation of 65 free market think tanks. 

Stateline News, research, and analysis on the U.S. states with annual features on the State of the States for the current year and a Legislative Review for the previous year; organized by The Pew Charitable Trusts. 

Stateside AssociatesThis Week in the States reports state government news and information on a weekly basis.  

Static Media Bias Chart – Ad Fontes Media – Media Bias Chart of over 100 sources

Tribal Court Clearinghouse Clearinghouse on tribal, federal, and state laws and policies relating to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

United States Conference of Mayors Association representing large-cities and their mayors with occasional reports relating to federalism from an urban perspective. 

Urban Institute Conducts a wide range of federal, state, and local policy research relating to urban, metropolitan, and broad social and fiscal issues World Newspapers Describes political orientation of leading U.S. magazines from American Conservative to the World Tribune.