Subject Specialist:
Law, Political Science, International Affairs
814-863-1347
e-mail: hms2@psu.edu
Helen Sheehy
Title: Head Social Sciences Library
Subject Specialist:
Law, Political Science, International Affairs
814-863-1347
e-mail: hms2@psu.edu
The sources you find below will give you a general background about your country and its broad social and political environment to help you frame the reset of your research. Many will also give you general statistics and directory information about government officials. Print resources can give you the best and most concise picture of your country. Be sure to check the publishing dates to be sure you are getting the information you need.
Note: [Penn State Libraries] indicates a Libraries' resource available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account.
Political Risk Yearbook [Penn State Libraries]
Lengthy analysis of a country's political and economic climate and risks, the Political Risk Yearbook is unique in that it provides forecasts on likely political and economic developments. Each Country Report focuses specifically on political and business information: finding developing markets, determining currency movements, preparing for capital investments, or making judgments about corporate security.
Political Handbook of the World
Annual survey of government, regional issues, and international organizations. Good source for background information about countries and organizations and for an overview of the year's political events. Includes some statistics.
Political Parties of the World
A country-by-country look at the major political parties. Lists Web sites for parties if they are available.
Countries and their Cultures
A four-volume encyclopedia that focuses on cultures and countries around the world, specifically what is and is not shared culturally by the people who live in a particular country. Entries contain descriptive summaries of the country in question, including demographic, historical, cultural, economic, religious, and political information.
Other useful encyclopedias include:
All of the titles above are included in the Gale Virtual Reference Library [Penn State Libraries]
Armed Conflict Database [Penn State Libraries]
Provides an interactive source of information on a wide range of conflicts including terrorism, refugees, and returnees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), weapons flows, fatalities, costs (U.S. Dollars), historical backgrounds, annual updates and timelines. Users can generate reports and download data as well as browse through year-by-year analyses and fact sheets online.
Country Studies/Area Handbook Series [Library of Congress]
Book-length works covering the history, politics, geography, and economy of individual countries. Some are dated and therefore most useful for getting an historical perspective. To locate the these resources, search The CAT using Area Handbook Series as your search term. Some are available on the Web at the Library of Congress' Country Studies Web site.
Background Notes
Short (4-5 page) overviews of the government and politics of various countries. Prepared for U.S. Department of State personnel on diplomatic missions.
Post Reports
Designed for State Department personnel stationed at embassies and consulates, these can provide insight into a country, and are particularly helpful in that they describe some major cities as well as the country. Most recent versions are not available to the public, but previous versions are available via eDiplomat, a commercial Web site.
Embassies and Consulates
Embassies and consulates often provide country descriptions and/or data (often in English) as well as links to government sites in their home countries. Some sources for lists of embassies:
The Libraries have many specialized encyclopedias that may be of help. Consult The CAT to locate more of these.
Europa World Year Book
Contains brief background discussion of countries and international organizations, including history, government, politics, etc.. Also provides brief statistical information.
Constitutions of the Countries of the World [Penn State Libraries]
Copies of the constitutions (current and historical) for the countries of the world. Constitutions are available in both English translation and the vernacular. Includes an essay which talks about the constitutional development in each country. Historical constitutions are available in print in the Social Sciences Library Reference Collection, 2nd floor Paterno Library [Call number: JF11.C63]
Constitution Finder [University of Richmond]
Constitutional Laws of Nations [Chan Robles Virtual Law Library]
National Constitutions — includes some translations and some historical constitutions
Parline
A database created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) that allows you to search for brief information on the parliament of a country and, when available, a link to the Web site for that country's parliament. To read information on a specific country's parliament, select the country from the pull-down menu labeled Country. You can look at information on all parliaments in Europe by selecting Europe from the drop-down menu labeled Regions. By selecting Germany, I found out that there are two parliamentary chambers: Deutscher Bundestag and Bundesrat. By clicking on the link for either, I could find out the number of seats, official name, president, address, web site and more.
The IPU also maintains an alphabetical list of web sites for national parliaments, but without the information available through Parline. Select a country from the list to find out if the national parliament has a Web site. If so, follow the link to that site. For example, by clicking on Germany, I went to a page that listed two Web sites, one for the Bundestag and one for the Bundesrat.
Web Sites of National Parliaments [Inter-Parliamentary Union]
An alphabetical listing of national parliaments around the world.
Women in National Parliaments
Data compiled by the Intra-Parliamentary Union reports on the representation of women in 179 parliaments around the world.
World Encyclopedia of Parliaments and Legislatures
Country-by-country analysis of politics, parties, elections, and parliaments around the world.
International Encyclopedia of Elections
Everything you ever wanted to know about the forms of elections and election processes.
Political Parties of the World
A great source for learning about the various political parties in each country.
Administration and Cost of Elections [ACE] Project
"The Administration and Cost of Elections [ACE] Electronic Publication represents the first-ever attempt to provide a globally accessible information resource on election administration.
Three leading international organizations [The International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)] worked together to produce the materials for this project.
CNN Election Watch
The CNN Election Watch lists recent election results as well as the status of those currently in progress. Data on past elections are arranged according to geographic region.
The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
"The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems is a collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world. Participating countries include a common module of survey questions in their post-election studies. The resulting data are deposited along with voting, demographic, district and macro variables. The studies are then merged into a single, free, public dataset for use in comparative study and cross-level analysis."
Elections and Electoral Systems around the World
A listing of various web resources about elections.
Electoral results in Europe
A web site from the Centre d'étude de la vie politique (site is in English) with selective results of parliamentary elections.
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems reports on election results worldwide. A yearly election calendar provides a concise listing of elections. Clicking Related Links reveals a host of domestic institutions and organizations responsible for overseeing and reporting on elections.
Lijphart Elections Archive
The Lijphart Election Archives is a database of election results for 350 legislative elections in 26 countries. It is somewhat outdated and does not contain the most current information.
Parties and Elections in Europe
This site provides current information on every European parliamentary election since 1945, including some regional elections (e.g. South Tirol, Scotland, Northern Ireland), elections to the European Union, as well as more specific information on national and state elections in Germany and Austria.
Voter Turnout : A Global Survey
This site, sponsored by the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Advantage, gives statistics on voter turnout for many countries around the world.
Parties on the Web [Electionworld.org]
This site provides links to parties around the world by country as well as information on the party composition of parliaments around the world.
Political Resources on the Net
Click on the map for a list of links to political parties in the country and related political information.
Political Risk Yearbook [Penn State Libraries]
Background information on the political and economic climate in many countries. Reports are specifically designed for companies thinking of investing in other countries.
Market Research — [from Export.gov, the "U.S. government export portal"]
A wide variety of reports and data on other countries.
Market Research Library — [from U.S. Commercial Service]
Comprehensive market research includes overviews about doing business in more than 120 countries and profiles of 110 industry sectors. You can also get updates on new regulations, currency fluctuations, business trends, and government-financed projects. Much of this research is available at no charge.
Trade Agreements Library [U.S. Department of Commerce]
The following databases will help you locate journal articles about your country and its political climate:
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts [Penn State Libraries]
Covers journal articles within the political science discipline and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/public policy from 1975 to the present.
CIAO (International Affairs) (some full text) [Penn State Libraries]
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) is a comprehensive source for research in international affairs. It includes full text of selected books on international affairs, working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences. It also contains abstracts and some full text of selected journal articles.
EconLit [Penn State Libraries] — particularly good for political economy.
The CAT
Check The CAT to find books and other materials in the University Libraries' Collection.
CIAO [International Affairs] (some full text) [Penn State Libraries]
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) is a comprehensive source for research in international affairs. It includes full text of selected books on international affairs, working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences. It also contains abstracts and some full text of selected journal articles.
World Bank e-Library [Penn State Libraries]
Full text of World Bank publications, including policy papers.
OECD iLibrary [Penn State Libraries]
Full text of documents and publications from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Includes statistical data.
PolicyFile [Penn State Libraries]
Index to publications from many of the major think tanks and interest groups. Links to many full-text articles. Check The CAT for additional sources.
UNdata [Penn State Libraries]
The United Nations statistics website provides data on a wide range of social and economic data series from 30 specialized international intergovernmental agencies including POPIN, World Bank, IMF, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNICEF, and WHO. Data can be displayed in HTML or downloaded in Excel or CSV format.
World Development Indicators [WDI] [Penn State Libraries]
World Development Indicators includes nearly 800 statistical indicators related to social and economic development. It is organized into six sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States & Markets, and Global Links. The tables cover 152 economies and 14 country groups - with basic indicators for a further 55 economies. Data can be downloaded for further manipulation.
MBS Online (international statistics) [Penn State Libraries]
The Monthly Bulletin of Statistics [MBS] includes detailed economic, industrial, trade, and population statistics (monthly or quarterly) from more than 200 countries. Data may be graphed, printed, or downloaded. Compiled by the United Nations.
SourceOECD (economic policy) [Penn State Libraries]
The statistical module of this database includes many of the data sets available from the OECD, including significant data on economic and trade issues.
UNCTAD Statistical Databases
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development [UNCTAD] maintains a number of statistical databases, including the UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics, Foreign Direct Investment Database, Commodity Price Bulleting, and UNCTAD-Trains (TRade Analysis and INformation System).
Statistical Insight [ProQuest] [Penn State Libraries]
Statistical Insight is a powerful index to statistics and data contained in federal government and international organization publications. Most link to full-text publications. The University Libraries own most of these collections in paper or microfiche format that do not contain full-text links. Ask for assistance locating information at any University Libraries Reference Desk.
List of Intergovernmental Organizations and Membership
From the CIA World Factbook
Governments on the Web
A comprehensive list of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).
United Nations
To search for documents from the working sessions of the General Assembly, Security Council, or Economic and Social Council use the Libraries' UN Research website.
