LibGuides: Political Science: Foreign Govts

Guides by Country

Guide to Law Online: Nations
Alphabetical list of legal research guides for each country of the world from the Law Library of Congress. "Vast network of links to content-based Web sites of primary and secondary legal and legislative information services from 143 nations and all U.S. federal, state and territorial government entities."

Constitutions

World Constitutions Illustrated (HeinOnline)
This collection will contain the current constitution of every country in the world in its original language(s). Also included will be at least one English translation. We are working to identify and acquire the source documents for every historical constitution for every country. As historical documents are identified, they will be added to the constitutional timeline for each country.

Constitutions of the countries of the world; a series of updated texts, constitutional chronologies and annotated bibliographies. by Edited by A.P. Blaus
Call Number: Indexes, Geisel Floor1 East K3157.A2 B58 1971
Publication Date: 1971-

Foreign Gazettes

Foreign Government Officials and Political Parties

Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments aka World Leaders
The CIA publishes and updates the online directory of Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments regularly. The directory is intended to be used primarily as a reference aid and includes as many governments of the world as is considered practical, some of them not officially recognized by the United States.
Older editions are available in HathiTrust and in print and microfiche: US Docs, Geisel Floor2 PREX 3.11/2:
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Formerly https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/world-leaders-1/
Parline database
The database, searchable by each county, region and sub-region, provides 600+ data points for every country where there is a functioning parliament. Covers parliamentary structure and includes historic elections results. Also includes ranking by number of women.
European Parliament / MEPs
The European Parliament is made up of 736 Members elected in the 27 Member States of the enlarged European Union. Since 1979 MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year period. Searchable by country, term, political group, etc.

The Statesman's Yearbook by Palgrave Palgrave Macmillan (Editor)
Call Number: Geisel Floor6 JA51 .S797 (1873-2021); 2018-current online via SpringerLink)
ISBN: 9781349959396
Publication Date: 2019-09-06
The Statesman's Yearbook continues to be the reference work of choice for accurate and reliable information on every country in the world. This classic reference work presents a political, economic and social account of every country of the world together with facts and analysis. Includes: Revised and updated biographical profiles of all current leaders; Extensive updates to national economic overviews; Expanded and updated historical introductions; Week-by-week chronology of key political events; Comprehensive coverage of major international organizations and think tanks. 1864-1951 available via LLMC

Manifesto Project
Dataset that provides the scientific community with parties’ policy positions derived from a content analysis of parties’ electoral manifestos. It covers over 1000 parties from 1945 until today in over 50 countries on five continents.

Country Background & Statistical Information

Use these guides find cross national data sources by topic.

International Government Data & Statistics
From UC Berkeley. List arranged by subject: Children & Families, Crime & Security, Development, Economics, Food & Commodities, Education & Culture, Environment, Health, Population, Politics & Elections, Social & Humanitarian, Urban & Housing, Women & Gender, Microdata, Open Data

Use these sources for overviews of current issues in individual countries.

CIA World Factbook
Latest edition of annual survey, with profiles of all countries and territories from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Internet Archive version includes captures back to 2007 and archives back to 2000. FDLP Archive version includes downloads back to 2000.

Political Risk Yearbook
The Political Risk Yearbook is an annual publication that “contains all 100 Political Risk Services’ Country Reports updated to the previous December, demarcated along regional lines, using the globally-recognized Coplin-O’Leary political risk rating methodology.” Included in Business Source Complete.

Economist Intelligence Unit (UCSD Portal)
Portal to UCSD-subscribed EIU content. Includes searchable online archive (1996- ) and feed of Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) global country publications. Strong on current political, economic, and business affairs worldwide.
Europa World Plus
Economic, political, historical, and geographic profiles of countries and global regions. Contact info for political, business, media, and cultural agencies and officials. Search or browse by country, region, organization, or people. Access limited to 1 user at a time. Try again later if refused.

Use these sources to find country-level (and sometimes smaller) data on a plethora of topics.

Sage Data (formerly Data-Planet)
Provides easy access to statistical data. Data is downloadable in Excel and CSV, and shapefiles when multiple geographies are covered. Sources include: Bombay Stock Exchange, British Bankers' Association, Chicago Board Options, Exchange, China Data Center, D&B (Dun & Bradstreet), Dave Leip's Atlas of US Presidential Elections, Defense Manpower Data Center, Deutsche Börse Group, Dow Jones, Easy Analytic Software Inc. (EASI), Eurostat, FTSE Group, HSI Services Limited (Hong Kong), International Monetary Fund, London Bullion Market Association , London Platinum & Palladium Market, NASDAQ OMX Group, National Bureau of Economic Research, Nikkei, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Standard & Poor's, World Bank, World Resource Institute, Xignite, and many US Federal agencies. See the Data-Planet Libguide for more detail.
ProQuest Statistical Insight
1973-present. Huge database of citations to statistical publications from U.S. federal and state governments, international agencies, nonprofit and educational institutions, and private publishers including trade and industry groups. Full text of the publication or report is often included, and many tables are downloadable in Excel. Particularly good for demographic and country-level information. Previous name Statistical Universe.
ProQuest Statistical Abstracts of the World
A collection of the statistical abstracts of various countries, both individually searchable and cross searchable. These statistical abstracts are generally issued by the national statistical offices of foreign governments and contain country-level data not easily found elsewhere. Global and regional statistical compendia issued by international organizations and research firms are also included.

Country Statistical Yearbooks
List of statistical yearbooks by country compiled by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries
UN Data
Wide range of economic, social, cultural, and demographic indicators: population, environment, health, economics, technology, trade, refugees, and more.
AidData
AidData is a collaborative initiative to provide products and services that promote the dissemination, analysis, and understanding of development finance information. At the core of the AidData program is the AidData web portal, which is a gateway to nearly 1 million records of development finance activities from donors around the world.
EuroStat
Top place to look for European statistics on economy and finance, population and social conditions, industry, trade, and services, agriculture and fisheries, transport, environment and energy, science and technology, and general and regional statistics.
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Eurostat is the Statistical Office of the European Communities. Its task is to provide the European Union with statistics at European level. By harmonising statistics from the European statistical system (ESS) to a single methodology, the statistics are made comparable.
FAOSTAT
On-line statistical databases covering international statistics in agriculture, food production, trade, forest products, fisheries and more. From the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Human Development Report
Full text of UNDP Human Development Reports, from 1990 to the next to most current year, plus national Human Development Reports and an excellent statistics section on industrialized and developing countries. Includes the Human Development Index and related indicators for Health, Education, Income/Composition of Resources, Inequality, Gender, Poverty, Work, employment and vulnerability, Human Security, Trade and Financial Flows, Mobility and Communication, Environmental sustainability, Demography, Socio-economic sustainability.
ILOSTAT
International Labour Organization (ILO) Database on International Labor Statistics, offering annual data from 1979 to the present for a wide range of variables, including employment and unemployment, earnings, wages, strikes and more.

IMF eLibrary Data
Provides comprehensive access to International financial statistics (IFS), Balance of payments statistics (BOPS), Direction of trade statistics (DOTS), and Government finance statistics (GFS) databases. View and download predefined data reports or create.

InterAmerican Development Bank - Specialized Datasets
Statistics for Latin American countries, offering annual data (from 1990) on a wide range of variables, including national accounts, balance of payments, prices, labor statistics, and more.

International Country Risk Guide: Table 3B: Political Risk Points by Component
The ICRG Researcher's Dataset - Table 3B provides annual averages of the 12 components of ICRG's Political Risk Ratings (Table 3B), as published in the International Country Risk Guide since 1984. Average ratings are provided for all countries covered by ICRG from 1984 through the last full calendar year.

International Telecommunication Union statistics

International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE), 1968 - [most recent]
The ITERATE project is an attempt to quantify data on the characteristics of transnational terrorist groups, their activities which have international impact, and the environment in which they operate.

Millennium Development Goals Indicators
Has official data, definitions, methodologies and sources for more than 60 indicators to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
Military Balance (Institute for Strategic Studies)
Annual publication with detailed statistical information about the world's militaries including budget, enlisted personnel, and firepower.
Monthly Bulletin of Statistics
The latest economic statistics and population estimates for most countries and areas of the world. Issued by the United Nations.

OECD iLibrary
OECD iLibrary is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development's Online Library for Books, Papers and Statistics and the gateway to its analysis and data. Coverage includes development, economics, education, energy, environment, scitech, social issues, and more.

openAfrica
openAFRICA aims to be the largest independent repository of open data on the African continent.
Penn World Table
Alan Heston, Robert Summers, and Bettina Aten
The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 168 countries starting with 1950.
SIPRI Databases
Facts on international relations and security trends
SIPRI multilateral peace operations database
SIPRI military expenditure database
SIPRI arms transfers database
SIPRI arms embargoes database
SIPRI national reports database
Statistics Canada
Canada's national statistical agency. Includes data on the Canadian economy, population, labour force, education, health and much more.
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Some data is available only for purchase.
Sustainable Development Goals
Click on Engage > Member States for country-level goals, statements, documents, and reports.
Sustainable Development Goals Indicators Database
Provides access to data compiled through the UN System in preparation for the Secretary-General's annual report on "Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals"

UNdata
Single search interface for data produced and collected by various United Nations (UN) organizations. Provides 442 economic, social, cultural, health, and demographic data series for countries of the world. Data providers include UN, UNESCO, FAO, WHO, IMF, UNICEF, ITU, and World Bank. Some indicators reach back as far as the 1940s.

UN Member States On the Record
Provides direct access to official documents reflecting the views of United Nations Member States by bringing together in one place documents available elsewhere.
UN Statistics Division
Links several free databases from UN Statistics Division.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) statistical institute website. Includes statistical data sets of world education and literacy indicators, and selected data from the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook.
USAID
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States. The site provides an overview of each county where the agency does work.
World Bank DataBank
DataBank is an analysis and visualisation tool that contains collections of time series data on a variety of topics. You can create your own queries; generate tables, charts, and maps; and easily save, embed, and share them. Includes World Development Indicators...
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Statistical Capacity Indicators, Education Statistics, Gender Statistics, Health Nutrition and Population Statistics, Poverty and Equity, Doing Business, IDA Results Measurement System, Millennium Development Goals, Quarterly Public Sector Debt, Joint External Debt Hub, Job, Global Economic Prospects, Africa Development Indicators, Population estimates and projections, Health Nutrition and Population Statistics by Wealth Quintile, Landmine Contamination Casualties and Clearance (LC3D), Enterprise Surveys, Global Economic Monitor (GEM), Exporter Dynamics Database, Arica Development Entrepreneurship, Remittance Prices Worldwide, Sustainable Mobility for All, PPPs Regulator Quality, Human Capital Index, World Bureaucracy Indicators, Logistics Perfomance Index (LPI), Health Equality and Financial Protection Indicators (HEFPI), Global Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection Survey, Economic Fitness, Environment Social and Governance (ESG) Data, MIX Market, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), International Comparison Program (ICP) 2011, Wealth Accounts, Economic Fitness, Africa Infrastructure, International Debt Statistics (formerly Global Development Finance), Global Bilateral Migration, UNCTAD - Trade Analysis Information System (TRAINS), International Comparison Program (ICP) 2005, Global Financial Inclusion, The Atlas of Social Protection: Indicators of Resilience and Equity, Country Policy and Institutional Assessment, Global Partnership for Education, Global Financial Development, G20 Financial Inclusion Indicators, ESCAP World Bank: International Trade Costs, Sustainable Energy for All, Service Delivery Indicators, Adjusted Net Savings, Indonesia Database for Policy and Economic Research, Subnational Malnutrition, LAC EQUITY LAB, India Power Sector Review Database, Country Partnership Strategy for India (FY2013-17), Agriculture in Africa – Telling Facts from Myths, National Poverty Line - Subnational Poverty, Quarterly External Debt Statistics GDDS, Quarterly External Debt Statistics SDDS, Subnational Population
Country Studies from the Library of Congress
Each online book contains historical and cultural background information on the country it covers. Formerly known as the Area Handbooks from the Department of the Army.
International Statistical Agencies
Links to the official statistical agencies of foreign countries.

Africa

Africa South of the Sahara: Selected Internet Resources
Via Stanford University

Africa Wide Information
19th century-present. Incorporates African Studies and South African Studies databases. Sources include books, periodicals and magazines articles,newspapers, pamphlets, maps, reports, theses, much more. Nearly 2 million records
AfricaBib
Free database of social sciences citations relating to Africa. Comprised of six sub-databases: Africana Periodical Literature; African Women; Women Travelers, Explorers and Missionaries to Africa; Islam in Africa; Kenya Coast; and Water and Africa.
ASKIA
Search engine of open access scientific knowledge from Africa, on Africa, to Africa and the World. The Access to Scientific and Socio-economic Information in Africa (ASKIA) Initiative is under the Public Information & Knowledge Managment Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. It brings together scientific and socio-economic information for the African community, including scientists, researchers, academics, students, economists and, policy-makers, over an interactive online portal acting as a one-stop shop to such knowledge and associated information from/on Africa. The overall goal of the initiative is to strengthen knowledge discovery and access by tapping into global scientific and socio-economic knowledge on and from Africa.

Africa Portal
The Africa Portal is an online collection of resources on African policy research. It is a collaborative project between the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).

Canada

Statistics Canada
Canada's national statistical agency. Includes data on the Canadian economy, population, labour force, education, health and much more.
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Some data is available only for purchase.
Canadian Government Information guide - Carleton University
Canadian Government Information guide - Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Canadian Government Information guide - University of Toronto
Canadian Government Information guide - University of Victoria

Europe

ProQuest U.K. Parliamentary Papers
The British Parliamentary Papers is a detailed primary source for the United Kingdom, its colonies and the wider world. Includes searchable full text; displays page images with tables, maps, illustrations. Now includes the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Century and House of Lords Parliamentary Papers. Searchable full text; displays page images with tables, maps, illustrations. Encompasses all areas of social, political, economic and foreign policy, "showing how issues were explored and legislation was formed. Many contributors to the papers were found outside the official world, providing evidence or supplying memoranda to committees and commissions. For more information see ProQuest's Libguide
Currently includes:
Public Petitions 1833-1918
Bills and Acts 1695-current
Command Papers 1802-current
House of Commons Papers 1715-current
House of Lords Papers 1714-1910
Hansard 1803-2005
Journals 1688-1834
Debates 1774-1805
Histories and Proceedings 1660-1743

Bookshop.europa.eu - Publications Office of the European Union
European Union guide (UC Berkeley)
European Studies Research Guides
A wide variety of links for European Studies research collected by members of the ACRL European Studies Section. Includes library catalogs, news, history, politics, and more.

Latin America

LANIC: Latin American Network Information Center
Administered by the University of Texas Austin, provides access to official (government), scholarly, and popular internet portals to information on Latin America for virtually every subject available.