Title: Public Agenda Online

Source/Sponsoring Agency: Public Agenda

URL: http://www.publicagenda.org

Date Checked:       Status: Active

Date Annotated: 6/14/99

Topics: Civil Rights; Constitutional Law; Criminal Law; Family Law; Politics; Women and the Law

Other keywords: Court Decisions; Health Law; Immigration Law; Legislation; Statistics

Contents: For the past 25 years Public Agenda, a non-partisan, non-profit organization, has been conducting public opinion polls on the issues of the day and digesting the results, for the benefit of researchers, journalists, and public policy makers. Among the topics covered are abortion, America's global role today, immigration, education, the Internet, welfare, crime, and environmental policy. In addition to headline stories about social and legal policy, the sections for each topic provide an overview of current developments in the above areas, a summary of the opposing viewpoints, the text of newspaper articles, graphs of opinion polls, and links to individuals and organizations important to that issue. Public Agenda is also careful to note "red flags" or caveats for the user when perusing reports on each issue; for instance, Americans respond differently to questions on the right to die depending on whether the word "suicide" is used, and most disapprove of divorce and abortion yet want them to remain available. Some subjects, such as immigration, are more narrowly law-related; still, this is an informative resource for anyone working in the area of public policy.

Author of Annotation: Anne Carson