Politics & Business

Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.

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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its homepage; see under Databases. For a complete list of Foster databases, see the List of All Business Databases. Access to these databases from off campus requires that you first go to the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. These resources may not be accessed from off campus except by those with a valid UW Net ID and password. For more information on Foster business databases, click Databases, A-Z. For information on which Foster business databases to use, see the Database Index. For information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, see Database Access. For guidelines on responsible database usage, see Database Usage.

EconLit: Included in the folder Articles--Citations & Abstracts and alphabetically under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Produced by the American Economic Association, EconLit is the fundamental research tool in economics. The database provides bibliographic citations, with selected abstracts, to the international literature on economics since 1969. Econ Lit corresponds to the Journal of Economic Literature and the Index of Economic Articles, covering journal articles, books, and dissertations, as well as articles in collective works, such as conference proceedings and collected essay volumes.

A search for Business and Politics retrieved over 350 references.

EIU Online: One of the world's top sources for country intelligence, the EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit) employs 500 analysts who research almost 200 nations. The Foster Business Library provides access to their Country Profiles, Country Reports, Country Commerce, and Country Finance in print editions and this database provides online access to these publications, often in both HTML and PDF formats.

A search for Business and Politics, in Viewswire, retrieved a list of more than 15,000 articles.

Hoovers Online: Under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. Hoovers Online offers information about 14,000 public and private companies worldwide, with links to company homepages and annual reports, charts, company capsule, competitors, divisions, earnings, financials, Fortune and Forbes rankings, history, industry information, insider trading, mission statements, news links, press releases, officers, patents, products, SEC filings, splits, subsidiaries, etc.

This database provides company fact sheets and overviews of many firms active in politics including Parsons Corporation, Halliburton Company, Bechtel Group, Fluor Corporation, the Louis Berger Group, Perini Corporation, Washington Group International, and the Raytheon Company, among others.

JSTOR: This database may be found under Electronic Journals, which may be found by going to Reference Tools in the left menu, under Find It. JSTOR is a subject searchable index of 360 journals, with full-text backfiles of scholarly journals, some of which date back to the 1800's. Among the collections of scholarly journals on this site are ones for Business and for Economics, encompassing 72 journals.

A basic search, in Business and Economics journals, for Business and Politics, in abstracts, produced just three articles; in full text, over ninety articles.

Social Sciences Citation Index: Included in the folder Articles--Citations & Abstracts under Business Databases on the Foster Business Library homepage. This database "is a multidisciplinary index, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. It indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. It "provides access to current information and retrospective data from 1956 forward."

A general search for Business and Politics retrieved over 950 documents.

Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

American Enterprise Institute: "Founded in 1943 and located in Washington, D.C., AEI is one of America's largest and most respected 'think tanks.' AEI research covers economics and trade; social welfare; government tax, spending, regulatory, and legal policies; U.S. politics; international affairs; and U.S. defense and foreign policies. The Institute publishes dozens of books and hundreds of articles and reports each year." See their Regulation.

BIPAC: BIPAC is a political action committee, founded in 1963, that works to express the voice of the business community in American politics, contributing money to pro-business candidates and coordinating business contributions to the political process and voting for their candidates by employees of their companies. "For every $1.00 BIPAC gives to a candidate, at least $92.00 has been tracked to follow from the business community." See their Business Agenda, Supported Candidates (two Democrats and nine Republicans), and their publication Elections Insight. They also rate members of Congress on their support of BIPAC positions; for instance, see current members Voting Records on a range of business-related issues.

Brookings Institution: This site provides research on a wide variety of topics, including business—and where business and politics often coincide, Regulation. See also their Campaign Finance Reform.

Business Week--Campaign 2004: This magazine provides special coverage of the election campaign of 2004, from the viewpoint of its impact on business. See their Talking Business with John Kerry

BuyBlue.Org: This Democratic-leaning organization attempts to educate the American public about making purchasing decisions based on businesses that support the Democratic party. This website, using data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the Federal Election Commission, provides listings of companies that support the Republican and Democratic parties (and, in some cases, just one party). See their listing of Company Rankings By Donation.

The Campaign Finance Institute: "The Campaign Finance Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit institute, affiliated with The George Washington University, that conducts objective research and education, empanels task forces and makes recommendations for policy change in the field of campaign finance." See their CFI Research and Campaign Finance Reform Resources .

The Campaign Legal Center: "The Campaign Legal Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which works in the areas of campaign finance and elections, political communication and government ethics." See their Court Cases of Interest, Press Articles of Interest, and IRS Proceedings.

Center for Investigative Reporting: This center describes itself as " a nonprofit organization that reveals injustice and strengthens democracy through the tools of journalism." See their Money and Politics reporting (since a lot of the money is from corporations and industries).

Center for Political Accountability: This center describes itself as "a non-profit, non-partisan organization that was created in the fall of 2003 to bring transparency and accountability to corporate political giving. It addresses a serious problem: the fact that shareholders are largely uninformed about corporate soft money political contributions." See their Library on this topic.

Center for Responsive Politics: "The Center for Responsive Politics is a non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. The Center conducts computer-based research on campaign finance issues for the news media, academics, activists, and the public at large." See their Election Overview, Top Overall Donors (by company or organization), top Contributors to 527 Committees, Industry Breakdown, and Sector Breakdown. See also their Campaign Finance Links.

Common Cause Soft Money Laundromat: "Common Cause Common Cause was founded in 1970, with more than 200,000 members and supporters nationwide. Financed by the dues and contributions of its individual members, Common Cause does not accept foundation or government grants or solicit contributions from labor unions or corporations." Their Soft Money Laudromat is "a searchable database of special interest soft money contributions to the Democratic and Republican national party committees." This database enables searches by industry as well as by city and state, with separate columns by party. Search results disclose company affiliation. See also their Campaign Finance Studies.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: This organization "uses high-impact legal actions to target government officials who sacrifice the common good to special interests." Many of their investigations revolve around the nexus of business and politics. See their News Releases.

Institute on Money in State Politics: "The Institute on Money in State Politics is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to accurate, comprehensive and unbiased documentation and research on campaign finance at the state level. The Institute develops searchable databases, makes them available to the public online, and analyzes the information to determine the role campaign money plays in public policy debates in the states." The institute tracks campaign funding from business and business-related groups; for instance, see their The Politics of Business: Chamber Groups Support GOP (five pages in PDF format). See also their Tools and Resources for links to similar organizations.

LegiStorm: "LegiStorm launched in September 2006. LegiStorm is a company dedicated to transparency in government. We gather information about the U.S. Congress and make it available to the public. As a non-partisan group, we exist to exhibit the facts and disseminate public information about our nation's elected officials and their staff." See their information on Salaries, Trips (see the list of Most Active Sponsors, and the Score (latest happenings on the House and Senate floors, and more).

Mother Jones 400 Homepage: Mother Jones magazine's website maintains a list of the top 400 contributors to political candidates, with links to lists by industry. See the list of the Top 400, ranked by total contribution, with company connections, industry, and total contributed amount and to which party (or parties).

National Bureau of Economic Research: "Founded in 1920, the National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works." A search of this site for Business and Politics retrieved over 15 references.

PoliticalMoneyLine: This nonpartisan firm maintains a database of over 30,000 lobbyists, lobbying firms, associations, corporations, and others who are regulated by the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Among the many categories of information available at this site are Hard Dollar Contributions Made By Industry Groupings and contributions made by the political action committee of General Motors. There is also a donor guide by State, including Washington state. Some database searches are limited to paid subscribers to the site.

Project Vote Smart: This non-profit organization is another good source for information on donors to politicians as well as to the rating that politicians receive from over 150 different interest groups.

Public Campaign: "Public Campaign is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to sweeping reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics." See their Research and Investigative Reporting, Fact Sheets and Useful Links.

The Seattle Times Money Watch: This special election section provides access to Washington state donors to the presidential campaigns and all donations to the year's state races for governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general, and the 8th Congressional District. The data is current within a few days and is compiled by reports campaigns must file with state or federal regulators. You can search by campaign, contributor, ZIP code or employer. Campaign contribution data is provided by Washington State Public Disclosure Commission and the National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting. For many donors, corporate affiliation is included.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce: This business organization represents "more than 3 million businesses, nearly 3,000 state and local chambers, 830 associations, and over 90 American Chambers of Commerce abroad" in Washington, D.C, lobbying government and elected officials on a wide variety of Business Issues and Legislation.

U.S. Federal Election Commission: "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." See their Campaign Finance Reports and Data and Campaign Finance Law Resources.

USAspending.gov: This U.S. government website "provides citizens with easy access to government contract, grant and other award data." See their Contracts site to search contracts by state, by district, by contractor, by agency, and more; see also, as an example, Top 100 Recipients of Federal Contract Awards for FY 2008 1Q.

Yahoo! News: See their Campaign Finance, under United States News. Foster Business Library Reference Collection:

The Foster Business Library

Reference Collection

National directory of corporate public affairs.
This book identifies key corporate public and/or governmental affairs and philanthropic officers and operations for 1,800 U.S. companies. For major companies, this directory provides information on corporate giving to political parties and to politicians, by party and by candidate. Also provided is information on corporate grant giving.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD59 .N24 2005.
The IMD world competitiveness yearbook.
This yearbook, published annually by the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, provides ranking information, in many competitiveness categories, for 46 major countries. Among the many categories are international trade, employment, prices, business legislation, labor markets, management practices, impact of globalization, and corruption.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF1414 .W67 2007.
Encyclopedia of business ethics and society.
This five-volume reference work includes 900 essays by scholars, arranged alphabetically by topic, on all aspects of business ethics.
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5387 .E53 2008.
See Political Action Committees in volume four, on pages 1602 to 1605.
Global corruption report.
This annual publication, published by Transparency International, usually focuses, each year, on a theme, such as corruption and health in the 2006 issue, with reports on this issue in many countries in part one. Part two consists of country reports from nations with corruption problems, with over forty countries included in the 2006 issue (including the U.S.).
Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: JF1081 .G56 2001, 2003-2006.
See the Special Focus: Political Corruption volume, published in 2004, and chapter four, on corporate money, on pages 59 to 75.

Foster Business Library Books:

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the UW Libraries Catalog, in the upper left corner of the Foster Business Library homepage. Search by keyword, title, author, series, etc.

To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

A keyword search for Politics and Business produced over 1,000 records in the UW Libraries, with over 160 records in the Foster Business Library, including:

Business elites and corporate governance in France and the UK (2006)
Corporate America and environmental policy: how often does business get its way? (2006)
How the East was won: the impact of multinational companies on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (2005)
Political power and corporate control : the new global politics of corporate governance (2005)
Political determinants of corporate governance: political context, corporate impact (2003)
Gangs of America: the rise of corporate power and the disabling of democracy (2003)
The Merck druggernaut: the inside story of a pharmaceutical giant (2003) (See the chapter "It is not for the profits," : part one, prices and politics)
Battling big business: countering greenwash, infiltration, and other forms of corporate bullying (2002)
Colossus: how the corporation changed America (2001)
The color of oil: the history, the money and the politics of the world's biggest business (2000)

A subject search for Business and Politics produced a list of over 290 records in the UW Libraries, with over sixty records in the Foster Business Library, including, as well as titles noted above:

It's legal but it ain't right: harmful social consequences of legal industries (2004)
Reinventing leadership: making the connection between politics and business (1999)
Business and the state in developing countries (1997)
Kindred strangers: the uneasy relationship between politics and business in America (1996)
Managers vs. owners: the struggle for corporate control in American democracy (1995)

A search for the subject Corporations -- United States -- Political Activity produced a list of over 25 records in the UW Libraries, with 10 records in the Foster Business Library, including:

Kindred strangers: the uneasy relationship between politics and business in America (1996)
The structure of corporate political action: interfirm relations and their consequences (1992)
Corporate strategy, public policy, and the Fortune 500: how America's major corporations influence government (1987)

A search for the subject Big Business — United States also produced books on the subject of Business and Politics, with over 100 records in the UW Libraries, including over sixty records in the Foster Business Library, including:

The bigness complex: industry, labor, and government in the American economy (2004)
Monopolies in America: empire builders and their enemies, from Jay Gould to Bill Gates (2000)
The inner circle: large corporations and the rise of business political activity in the U.S. and U.K. (1984)

See also the subject Corporations – Political Activity, with eight records in the UW Libraries, including four records in the Foster Business Library:

The rights of corporate speech: Mobil Oil and the legal development of the voice of big business (2005)
Bankers, bagmen, and bandits: business and politics in the age of greed (1990)
Politics and the corporate chief executive (1980)

Other relevant books may be found under such subjects as Political Participation – United States, such as:

The end of politics: corporate power and the decline of the public sphere (2000)

Foster Business Library Articles:

Articles in academic journals, magazines, trade periodicals, and newspapers are one of the best sources for any kind of research. While the Foster Business Library offers a large periodicals print collection, comprising over 800 titles, articles are most easily accessed online, 24/7, in such fulltext article databases as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases are available in the library or from off-campus, and provide access to over 10,000 periodicals and millions of articles.

Library access to most ProQuest databases will terminate at the end of spring quarter 2008, except for ProQuest NewsStand, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Historical New York Times, and the Historical Wall Street Journal. For more about this change, see UW Libraries Providing New Databases. After this change, comprehensive article searches should be performed in EBSCO Business Source Premier, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest NewsStand. Also, after this change, links to the articles below will be broken.

ProQuest Databases:

This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide.

Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

As an example, a search in this database for Business and Politics, in all databases, produced over 56,000 articles. A similar search for Politics and Business Government Relations produced over 230 articles.

A search for the subjects SUB(Business Community) and SUB(Campaign Contributions) produced over 120 articles; for SUB(Business Community) and SUB(Elections) and SUB(Campaign Contributions), over 35 articles.

As examples of articles, see:

"Suicide Is Not Painless"   (New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Oct 21, 2007. pg. 4.14)
"Political lines blurring among Wall Street elite" (International Herald Tribune. Paris: Oct 4, 2007. pg. 16)
"New Glimpse At Players In Task Force Led by Cheney" (New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Jul 19, 2007.  pg. A.18)
"Who business is betting on" (Fortune. New York: Jul 9, 2007. Vol. 156, Iss. 1;  pg. 45)
"Business Donors Hedge Their Bets; Many Increase Donations To Democrats, Evening War Chests in Final Days" (Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Oct 27, 2006.  pg. A.4)
"Buying clout: Big splash, high cost How St. Louis' top companies use big bucks to influence federal policies " (St. Louis Post - Dispatch. St. Louis, Mo.: Sep 11, 2005.  pg. A.1)
"Corporate PACs Favor GOP; Decisive Shift From Bipartisan Giving Began in 1995-96 " (The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Nov 25, 2004.  pg. A.06)
"Election PACs a bigger punch at most active local companies" (Crain's Chicago Business. Chicago: Nov 08, 2004. Vol. 27, Iss. 45;  pg. 19)
"Need another risk to weigh? In a presidential year, it's red stocks vs. blue stocks" (New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Aug 26, 2004.  pg. C.)
"In Mr. Bush's Neighborhood, A Peculiar Intersection" (New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Aug 22, 2004.  pg. 3.1)

"It's showtime for Dems; Vast majority of top donors in Washington are supporting anti-Bush cause" (Seattle Times. Seattle, Wash.: Jul 25, 2004. pg. A.)

Help:

The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed nearly all of the

hours

staff

balib@u.washington.edu

hours

See also the Foster Business Library's Business & Economics FAQ, and, in particular, the section for Company and Industry.

For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.

13 August 2004; updated 29 May 2008. Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu