POLS 330: Topics in Comparative Politics (HC)

This organization makes conference papers and other works by academics searchable and in many cases provides full text access. SSRN collects conference papers, journal article pre-prints and working papers in the social sciences. This is a good place to find very recent material.

This institutional repository for the London School of Economics and Political Science contains articles, book chapters, books, working papers, conference papers and more authored by LSE staff

Ratings of think tanks by geographical region and by area of research done. This annual ranking is sponsored by the International Relations program at the University of Pennsylvania.

GPF is a policy research group which promotes "accountability and citizen participation in decisions on peace and security, social justice and international law."

IDS is an international organization that sponsors research on international development.

Users can access timely, updated information from over 350 U.S. public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities. Coverage is from 1990 to the present. Can provide better results than searching Google.

Search of think tank websites sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School. Includes a mix of non-partisan and partisan due to organizations' impact and reputation.

Provides targeted searches to top think tanks according to differing topics. Open the More Search tab for additional options.

Enter your topic, the phrase policy brief (in quotations) and the domain search for nonprofits (site:.org)
Example: "migrant workers" women "policy brief" site:.org

Microlevel aid data from a civil society organization billed as "open data for international development. Includes a compilation of research data sets from around the world, articles on aid data from peer reviewed journals, and "aid data raw" which allows researchers to subset aid data by donor, recipient, and purpose for multiple years. Includes data visualization tools and geocoded data sets.

The ICRG (International Country Risk Guide) Researcher's Dataset from the PRS Group comprises 22 variables in three subcategories of risk (political, financial, and economic), for 146 countries, over the period 1984 to the previous year. Data are annual averages of components published in the International Country Risk Guide.

Includes many measures of countries' progress relating to poverty, education, and health.

"The WomanStats Project is the most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of women in the world. The Project facilitates understanding the linkage between the situation of women and the security of nation-states. We comb the extant literature and conduct expert interviews to find qualitative and quantitative information on over 310 indicators of women's status in 174 countries. Our Database expands daily, and access to it is free of charge." - website description.

Governance indicators for over 200 countries cover six areas: Voice and accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government effectiveness, Regulatory quality, Rule of law, and Control of corruption.

The Congressional Research Service prepares policy reports for Congress on all issues under consideration for legislation. These reports are not all released to the public. Individual legislators may post pertinent reports online. The link above allows you to search a site where many CRS report collections can be accessed full text.

The Government Publishing Office's information system provides public access to Government information submitted by Congress and Federal agencies.

This link allows you to search GAO reports, testimonies, and the full web site. As an investigative arm for Congress, GAO monitors compliance and accountability within government agencies, industry and business, and the public sector.