LibGuides: Political Science &amp; International Affairs: Background Research

Background Research

Political Handbook of the World, 2005-2019 Political Handbook of the World provides thorough and accurate information on the major aspects of each country's government and political party system. As a convenient, one-volume print source for global political information, each edition features country profiles that include: Key facts: Political status, area, population, major urban centers, official language, monetary unit, heads of government, heads of state, ambassadors, and U.S. and U.N. representation. Government and political history: Historical trends, regime changes, constitutional history, and regional and global policy issues of concern. Current Issues: Headline-making events, trends, controversies, and challenges. Political parties and organizations: Leading and minor parties, quasi-partisan and extra-systemic organizations, alliances, party histories, ideology, and leadership. Legislatures and cabinets: Recent national election results, legislative leaders, cabinet ministers. Communications: Names, circulation, and political affiliation of major national media; news agencies; television coverage and Internet usage. In addition to the United Nations and its specialized agencies, the Handbook profiles a number of intergovernmental organizations, such as the African Union, OPEC, NATO, the WTO, regional banks, and the International Criminal Court.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
This is a great place to start your research, with dictionary definitions and encyclopedia entries from a variety of reliable reference sources to provide you with lots of background information.

GPO Access
Link to freely available full text federal government documents published by the Government Printing Office. Additionally, electronic government documents can be accessed by searching the Library's catalog.

The Harris Poll
Results provided as news releases, analysis articles, and survey question responses. "Begun in 1963, The Harris Poll weekly column is one of the longest running; most respected proprietary surveys conducted by Harris Interactive measuring public opinion... The nationally representative polls, conducted both by telephone and online, measure, and trend, the knowledge, opinions, behaviors and motivation of the general public.
Pew Research Center "Nonpartisan 'fact tank' that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world...by conducting public opinion polling and social science research" (Pew). See the website for access to each of the Center's seven projects.
PollingReport.com
"An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion" (PollingReport.com). See the left-hand column of the website for search and browsing guidance.

Statistical Insight This link opens in a new window
Access to tables and citations to statistics produced by the U.S. federal, state and local governments, international governmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations.

USA.gov Data and Statistics
Find federal data and statistics for a variety of topics.

WestLawNext & News This link opens in a new window This is a full-text database providing law-related resources, including Federal and State court cases, Federal and State statutes, and other legal documents. Also includes thousands of law journals.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window Comprehensive source for local, regional and national newspapers in the United States, plus some international sources. Strong source for legal, company, and country research.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window This research platform provides thousands of multidisciplinary periodicals dating back to their inception, essential government documents, international resources, case law, and much more. Composed of fully searchable image-based PDFs.

Google Earth
This outstanding Web site is free, but must first download the Google Earth software. Users can quickly zoom in on any location in the world (even Antarctica) using color satellite imagery. Has the ability to tilt and rotate views for a 3-D affect.
David Rumsey Map Collection
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This collection has over 20,000 maps online and focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials.
Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection
Includes links to online maps of current interest and general interest (current and historical) as well as an archive of topical map links (e.g., Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 terrorist attacks). Currently, more than 11,000 map images are available on this Web site. Some images are slow to download.
Global Gazetteer
Falling Rain Genomics, Inc. provides access to this database as a tool to locate foreign place names. Shows latitude/longitude, altitude, time zone and airport information, and a general location map which can be changed in scale and switched between a color satellite image and a map or a hybrid of the two. User can zoom in on an image for greater detail especially of larger cities. Coverage is worldwide.

Credo Reference: International Relations
Merriam-Webster Geographical Dictionary
Dictionary entries covering place names. Some entries include additional information, such as population, history, etc.
Encyclopedia of Human Geography
Contains brief entries on common terms, important contributors, etc. in human geography. Entries include suggested reading for further research.

The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics by Keith E. Whittington (Editor); R. Daniel Kelemen (Editor); Gregory A. Caldeira (Editor) The study of law and politics is one of the foundation stones of the discipline of political science, and it has been one of the most productive areas of cross-fertilization between the various subfields of political science and between political science and other cognate disciplines. This Handbook provides a comprehensive survey of the field of law and politics in all its diversity, ranging from such traditional subjects as theories of jurisprudence, constitutionalism, judicial politics and law-and-society to such re-emerging subjects as comparative judicial politics, international law, and democratization. The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics gathers together leading scholars in the field to assess key literatures shaping the discipline today and to help set the direction of research in the decade ahead.
ISBN: 9780199208425
Publication Date: 2008-09-15