US political analysis for non-USAians

April 4, 2005 9:10 AM

LibrarianFilter: As a soon-to-be-Ph.D. student who's worked in US poltics for some time, I'm curious if there are good, periodical analyses of the US political scene (Congress, the bureaucracy, K & 16th Sts.) written particularly for foreign interests -- corporate, academic, or governmental. Specific references or suggested starting points would be much appreciated.
posted by piro to law & government (6 comments total)

None of these are particularly for foreign interests. Why does that matter?

Easiest: read the Economist. It will have most of what you'd care about. This will come the closest to "For heathen foreigners" requirement.

Middle: read the Washington Post on Sundays.

Harder: read the CQ Weekly Report.

What's your goal here?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:29 AM on April 4, 2005

Unfortunately, not many are open access. However, if you need to know then you need to know.

http://www.csa.com/
http://www.lexisnexis.com/
http://www.il.proquest.com/proquest/
http://firstsearch.oclc.org/ (my favorite)

Open Access:
http://www.ingenta.com/

Don't forget, there are also some pretty obvious places to go:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

And an excellent starting point:
http://rfe.wustl.edu/Data/World/
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:33 AM on April 4, 2005

Bah! Mere newsletters, ROU. The intertron provides for all...it is....master...the intertron...aaghghrlghg....*drools*
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:35 AM on April 4, 2005

Perhaps I should clarify. Right now I'm a professional researchrer; I'm more than passingly familiar with Lexis, Nexis, Proquest (and it's myriad files). I'm trying to get a sense of how foreign non-governmental entities and their principals gain insight and intelligence into the US political world.

Bank presidents, NGO leaders and MPs don't, I'd imagine, sit down at a Nexis terminal to dig for articles on the latest OMB circular.

Are there consulting firms that produce this sort of digest and analysis newsletter, or should I ditch grad school and make a killing writing this instead?
posted by piro at 9:48 AM on April 4, 2005

Why would you think they do something other than read several good newspapers? Or, minimally, subscribe to a clipping service or have an underling act as one?

I just don't see much value-added over reading the NY Times or the Washington Post in conjunction with whatever your major local/national is at home, for general needs.

If you had very specific needs, you could easily task someone in your own firm to monitor the Federal Register and Congressional Record for whatever it is you're looking for, Lord knows that gets easier every year, or you could hire a lobbying firm to do the same.

I'm trying to get a sense of how foreign non-governmental entities and their principals gain insight and intelligence into the US political world.

Why would you think it's different from how anyone else does it?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:33 AM on April 4, 2005

They usually use professional subscription based publications, targeted to people like them and published by for-profit entities. Many of these cover the whole world, not just the USA. They usually contain digests/summaries of important issues.
Examples include:
Oxford Analytica
Economist Intelligence Unit
posted by cushie at 11:59 AM on April 4, 2005