INTL 3300: Introduction to Comparative Politics: Home

If you are doing a case study, I suggest starting with these resources first to get background information.

Note: these databases are not indexed in the Multisearch!

Europa World: Contains detailed information about countries and international organizations worldwide.  

Covers political and economic information in over 250 countries and territories, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Updated regularly!

CRS Reports

NEW:  Statista:  A statistics portal that gathers data on more than 80,000 topics from a wide variety of sources. Includes market research, consumer and industry reports, and more.

IMF eLibrary:  Contains documents published by the International Monetary Fund on all countries.

OECD iLibrary (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) : Contains extensive statistical data which can be downloaded into spreadsheets. The database is especially rich in annual economic surveys of member countries, industry reports, and statistical reports.

UN iLibrary:  Searchable database of UN reports organized by country and theme.

UN Statistical Yearbook : Easy to navigate Yearbook of country statistics.

For more specific statistics (like education, finance), you can search the UNdata website.  It includes links to the online statistical abstracts of most nations.

Access World News:  Regional, national, and international news coverage.

Factiva:  Their News Pages offers a list of the current headlines from the most popular newspapers.  It is the easiest way to browse multiple newspapers at once without hitting a payall.

Duck Duck Go:  Google weights the news articles it shows you based on your previous search history and which websites you visit the most.  This can lead to bias in the types of news sources you read.  Duck Duck Go is a Google-like search engine that anonymizes you so that you get unweighted results when you search.

Free access to the Wall Street Journal through UGA.

Free access to the New York Times through Athens Regional Library.

Using the Multi-search is a good place to find articles.  Though not everything we own is in the Multi-search, it contains 1/2 of our online resources.

Because of the immense amount of information, using the Advanced search and limiters will cut down time reviewing materials about your topic.

Use the Advanced Search for complex searches:

Use Limiters on the left hand side of the page to refine your search even further.

Don't limit to just online, and don't limit only Scholarly.  That will hide a lot of material that you can still use in your papers.  Since you can use books as well, use the Format limiter and choose "Academic Journals" and "Books."

We have a lot of specific databases which a tailored to a single subject.  These can be useful if you're getting too much back from a simple Multi-search search.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

Dissertations focus on research of graduate students.  Good for niche, specific questions.

International Security & Counter-Terrorism Reference Center

Articles, reports, and background summaries on security and terrorism.

Political Science Complete

Citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields.  Focuses on Academic Research.

ProQuest Political Science 

ProQuest Political Science covers the literature of political science and international relations, including such topics as comparative politics, political economy, international development, environmental policy, and hundreds of related topics.  Includes Academic Research, grey literature reports, trade publications, and relevant news articles.

All the world's information is organized by subject.  If you know how it is organized, it is easy to find books and articles about your research.  Below is an example of how to search for books in the Libraries Catalog:

Choose "subject" from the drop down menu, and then type in the following formula <country> foreign relations <different country>

This will narrow your search to just books about relations between those two countries.  This formula can be used for any single country research as well.  <country> economic conditions, for example, will bring back books about economy, and <country> social conditions will bring back books about societal issues.

If you want to limit your search to just ebooks, check "Full Access Online" in the left hand menu after you search.

REQUESTING PDF SCANS

You can request pdf scans of book chapters and print articles which already reside in our collection.  Simply fill out this form.

GIL EXPRESS

You can borrow book from all 32 University System of Georgia institutions through a service called GIL Express.  

First, search the GIL Catalog and find the book you want.  Make sure you choose University System of Georgia from the dropdown menu.  Click on the link to the catalog record of the book.

Second, if another university has the book, and it is not checked out, click on My Account at the top of the page to log in with your MyID and password.

After you log in, you will be able to click on the Request link.  The book should arrive at the Library within four business days.

INTERLIBRARY LOAN

If the book you need is not owned by UGA or another USG institution, you can then place an ILLiad request, and we will borrow it from outside of the public university system.  This takes longer, so be prepared to wait from two weeks to a month to get a book.

ILL will also get articles for you if we do not possess a print or electronic copy.  They normally can email you a pdf within one business day.