Vital Statistics on American Politics 2003-2004

Book excerpt: No other print source, online source, or web search engine brings you the wealth of authoritative data available in Vital Statistics on American Politics. Working with hundreds of sources - government offices and publications, academia and scholarly articles, polling organizations, databases, time series studies, and more - authors Harold Stanley and Richard Niemi calculate and collect the data, facts, and figures that make this single work an unrivaled reference on the broad spectrum of American politics and policies. In over 200 tables and figures, each intelligibly presented, students, citizens, and researchers will find well-considered information about: Split district outcomes in votes for president and Congress; Changes in public opinion over military interventions such as the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and the use of U.S. troops in Haiti and Bosnia; Trends in labor union membership, unemployment rates, newspaper circulation, and public opinion on the death penalty over the years; The level of federal funds states receive relative to the federal tax dollars their citizens pay. Updated with the latest information, this new edition incorporates the historic 2002 electio