Country Information and Data Sources

There are many ways to find information on the government, poltical climate, current events, and data sources for countries around the world. Some reliable sources are available on the internet, but many are available through the University Libraries databases and print resources.

The following guide will help you get started identifying useful information sources--both freely available and those purchased by the libraries for your use.

These sources will give you a general overview of the government structure, parliamentary makeup, and political climate in your countries. They often include some basic statistics on the countries.

Print materials

• Political Handbook of the World
  Overview of the political system and situation in countries around the world.

• Europa World Yearbook
  Snapshots of the political, economic, and social conditions of countries worldwide.

• World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties
  Explanation of executive, legislative, and judicial systems, political parties, and electoral systems around the world.

• World Encyclopedia of Parliaments and Legislatures
  Country-by-country analysis of politics, parties, elections, and parliaments around the world.

• The Encyclopedia of Democracy
  Articles on the concepts of democracy, important figures, and country and regional assessments of the state of democracy in the world.

• Encyclopedia of World Political Systems
  A country-by-country survey of the political environment of a country and how that has effected governments.

• Encyclopedia of Nationalism
  How nationalist movements have played a role in the political environment, with many entries for specific countries.

• International Encyclopedia of Elections
  Everything you ever wanted to know about the forms of elections and election processes.

Online Resources

• Political Risk Yearbook
  An analysis of the business and political climate of various countries. Designed primarily for use by business, the analysis can be useful in identifying trends in politics and economics. Coverage is for selected countries only.

• Library of Congress "Country Studies Series" and Country Profiles
  Present descriptions and analyses of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world.

• Country Background Notes
  prepared by the U.S. State Department, these publications provide information about facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of countries.

• CIA World FactBook
  The FactBook contains very brief current info, including a few basic statistics, on countries of the world.

• Parline database
  From the Inter-Parliamentary Union, this database provides a description of the parliaments of the world, including recent election statistics.

These contain data sets that can be downloaded for later manipulation. When determining what the data set can be used for, look for "codebooks" or "data definitions" that describe what the data means.

• Armed Conflict Database
  Covers international and internal conflicts, as well as terrorism. It provides an interactive source of information on 70 armed conflicts including terrorism, refugees, and returnees, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), weapons used and their flows, fatalities, costs ($U.S.), 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.

• World Development Indicators
  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 and 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.

• GDF Online (Global Development Finance Online)
  Global Development Finance (GDF) is the World Bank's annual report on external financing prospects for developing and transition countries. It tracks the yearly movement of international capital flows to developing countries, and analyzes policy issues for developing countries. GDF provides statistical data for 137 countries. Data may be displayed as charts or maps and exported.

• United Nations Common Database (UNCDB)
  The most broad-based of the statistical resources, it draws data from a wide variety of UN and UN-related (e.g., FAO, ILO, WHO) organizations.

• International Financial Statistics Online
  IFS Online is the principal statistical publication of the International Monetary Fund. Tables for each Fund member country include data on the country's exchange rates, Fund position, international liquidity, money and banking accounts, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions, government accounts, national accounts, and population. Selected series are published in area and world tables. Data may be downloaded as HTML, MS Excel, comma-delimited, or tab-delimited files. Some series begin with 1945. Updated monthly.

• SourceOECD
  Full-text book and serial publications from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Statistics Portal includes many of the data sets available from the organization. This is primarily useful for wealthy developed countries, though some comparison with other countries is sometimes included. For a list of OECD member countries see the OECD homepage.

• TableBase (business/marketing)
  TableBase provides tabular and statistical data on companies, industries, products, and demographics. Subject areas include market share, company and brand rankings, industry and product forecasts, imports and exports, production and consumption statistics, number of users, and trends. Ninety percent of the records are full-text. It is international in scope and is updated weekly.

• ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Polisitcal and Social Research)
  ICPSR is a data archives with both for U.S. and international data. Both data and codebooks to interpret the data are available online to Penn State faculty, staff, and students. You will be asked to register before you use the system.

Journal articles can help you understand your country and its political environment, as well as help you formulate good research questions and research methodologies.

The most important database for political science is Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. The database contains some full text and will link you to additional full-text resources from other databases owned by the Libraries.