Government 245 : Comparative Politics of Developing Countries
Finding Country Information
Afrobarometer Country Surveys
"A comparative series of national public attitude surveys on democracy, markets, and civil society in Africa." Requires Powerpoint.
Area Handbook/Country Studies Series.
This series, produced by the Defense Department, provides useful information about individual countries. Each book-length report includes historical settings, social, cultural, and economic information, political and governmental background, statistics and an extensive bibliography. Titles take the form Somalia: A Country Study.
GovDoc D101.22:550-no./year
Online from the Library of Congress
Background Notes from U.S. Department of State
Up-to-date information about countries of the world. You may find also find the rest of the Department of State site worth a look.
Europa World Year Book. 2 vols.
Don't be fooled by the name; Europa is the name of the publisher, not an indication of the geographic area covered by the World Year Book. Begins with basic descriptions and brief histories of international organizations. Countries are listed alphabetically; each entry contains an introductory survey of recent history, economic affairs, etc., followed by a statistical survey and a directory with names and addresses of officials and major organizations.
Ref. [q.] JN 1 q.E85
FIRST: Facts on International Relations and Security Trends
This "integrated database system contains clearly documented information from research institutes around the world." A joint project of the International Relations and Security Network (ISN) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). For more on FIRST and their project partners, see the FIRST home page and follow the links provided to the partners' sites.
Freedom House
Founded more than 60 years ago, Freedom House is a "clear voice for democracy and freedom around the world." See Freedom in the World for their take on the status of freedom on different countries.
Human Development Report
The most recent Human Development Report includes that year's Human Development Indicators, statistics on life expectancy, literacy, quality of life, and more. The Human Development Reports homepage provides links to previous and published and unpublished reports, which can be viewed by years, countries, regions, and themes, including democracy. From the UN Development Program.
Human Rights
From the U.S. Department of State. Includes "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" for several years. Appendix C of the past and current reports provides a nice summary table of various conventions and whether or not a particular country is a party or signatory; Appendix D provides the key to Appendix C.
International Elections and Election Results
A useful guide to web and print resources. Some things are specific to Northwestern University (the source of the guide) but many are free or also available here.
International Historical Statistics
Three volumes covering most of the world.
Africa, Asia & Oceania, 1750-2000: Ref. [q.] HA4675 .M552 2003
Europe, 1750-2000: Ref. [q.] HA1107 .M5 2003
the Americas, 1750-2000: Ref. [q.] HA175 .M55 2003
Least Developed Countries Report
An annual report from UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. "Provides a comprehensive and authoritative source of socio-economic analysis and data on the world´s most impoverished countries." Includes an extensive "statistical annex."
Penn World Table
"Provides...national income accounts converted to international prices for 168 countries for some or all of the years 1950-2000."
Portals to the World
From the Library of Congress. Lists selective links providing authoritative, in-depth information about the nations and other areas of the world. Links are chosen by Area Specialists and other Library staff using Library of Congress selection criteria.
Statesman's Year-Book.
Another good source for brief information about countries. Entries list population, constitution and government, international memberships, economic and energy statistics and general cultural and historical information.
Ref. JA 51 .S7
United Nations Homepage
Follow the Welcome link for access to the English language version of the site.
World Development Indicators.
A publication of the World Bank. The library owns a number of World Bank publications; search LUCIA for World Bank using the Author (last name first) search. In addition, the World Bank provides a number of useful development data & statistics including what they have selected as key development data & statistics on their website.
Ref. [q.] HC59.15 .W656
World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties. 3 vols.
Includes entries arranged alphabetically by name of country. Each entry begins with a section headed "System of Government," and concludes with a section on "National Prospects." Other sections may cover the countries' electoral system, political parties, features of the government, internal and external conflicts, and more. You may want to supplement the information given here with that found in the International Encyclopedia of Elections, which describes the variety of electoral conditions, forms, and procedures.
World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties Ref. [q.] JF2011 .W67 1999
International Encyclopedia of Elections Ref. [q.] JF1001 .I57 2000
World Factbook.
Prepared by the CIA for the use of government officials. Current country
profiles and statistics.
Ref. [q.] G 123 .W6
Online: updated regularly
World Values Surveys Online Data Analysis
This site contains the data from the four waves of the Values Surveys, carried out in 1981-84, 1980-93, 1989-1993 and 1999-2004.
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Finding Articles
Journals listed as "paper" can be found, arranged alphabetically by title, on level A of the Library (one floor up).
Comparative Political Studies
1968- : paper
Comparative Politics
1968-1998: JSTOR
1999- : paper
Journal of Democracy
1995- : Project Muse
World Politics
1948-1995: JSTOR
1995- : Project Muse
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts 1975-
Use this database to identify specific articles in the above journals. Use Advanced Search to combine SO=[journal (source) name] with DE=[search term (descriptor) of your choice], e.g., SO=journal of democracy and DE=russia.
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Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try a Subject begins with search, for example, democratization or developing countries. LUCIA will list other subject headings (and subheadings) which may be of interest.
To combine terms for a different kind of search, try Keyword Anywhere. LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. Try a search for a phrase, like sustainable development, by searching with quotation marks around the phrase, as in "sustainable development". You can search for individual terms connected by logical operators like AND or OR. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH. You can also search for multiple forms of words by using an asterisk; try a search like this one for transition and democra*. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all words starting with democra: democracy, democratize, democratization, and so on. You can target your search even more effectively by telling LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records; compare the Keyword Anywhere search with the Subject Keyword search.
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system which organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.
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Style Manuals
Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.
The Chicago Manual of Style.
A standard source for bibliographic format.
RRef. Z253 .U69
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
As always, if you have any questions be sure to ask a Reference Librarian.
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Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready reference, shelves behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and M class scores; at end of classes in other collections
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