Introduction to Comparative Government and International Relations

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Selected Reference Materials

The Europa World Year Book. London: Europa Publications Limited, 2009.
Call Number: Trexler Library Ready Reference 341.1 E89 (Level A)
Note: Earlier editions (1966-) are available in the Main Collection at the same call number.

Hawkesworth, Mary, and Maurice Kogan, eds. Encyclopedia of Government and Politics. London; New York: Routledge, 1992.
Call Number: Trexler Library Reference Collection 320.03 H392e (Level A)

Nolan, Cathal J. Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002.
Call Number: Trexler Library Reference Collection 327.03 N787g v.1-4 (Level A)

Political Handbook of the World. New York: Published for the Center for Comparative Political Research of the State University of New York at Binghamton and for the Council on Foreign Relations by McGraw-Hill Book Co., 2009.
Call Number: Trexler Library Ready Reference 329 P769 (Level A)
Note: Earlier editions (1928-) are available in the Main Collection at the same call number.

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations. 10th ed. Detroit: Gale, 2001.
Call Number: Trexler Library Reference Collection 910.3 W927e v.1-6 (Level A)

Online

The following online resources might be useful providing overviews, history, and data on individual countries.

CIA World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
A standard source for current data on countries of the world.

Library of Congress Country Portals to the World
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html
A gateway to recommended sources on specific countries.

Library of Congress Country Studies: Area Handbook Series
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/
"Description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world." Note that some of the entries have not been updated in recent years. Check for currency.

US Department of State: Background Notes
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn
Great for current information on specific countries, particularly relevant to U.S. foreign relations.

Finding Articles: Databases & Indexes

SEARCHING FOR ARTICLES

See a list of all databases via the Library Homepage -- Databases A to Z (in the QuickLinks box).

International Relations & Comparative Politics Databases

PAIS International (Public Affairs Information Service)
Citations to scholarly journals, gray literature, government publications, and more from 120 countries on political, economic, social and public policy issues.

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
Full text of working papers, policy briefs, conference proceedings, journal articles and more in the area of international affairs theory and research.

General / Interdisciplinary Databases

Academic Search Premier
Scholarly and non-scholarly publications in a wide variety of disciplines and subject areas.

OmniFile (WilsonWeb)
A database covering various academic subjects including general sciences, humanities, social sciences, and business.

News

LexisNexis Academic
Full text of thousands of newspapers, magazines, broadcast transcripts, business publications, legal materials, and more.

GETTING THE ARTICLES

When searching for articles in library databases, you may find the full-text of an article linked in the database.

If not, you need to search the Trexler Library Catalog to see if we own the journal in which the article is published.

Most databases have a Get It! link embedded. Click the link to check our holdings.

Otherwise, search the catalog by journal title or by ISSN . Verify that we have online, print, or microform access to the year/volume you need.

If we do not own the journal you need, request the article via Interlibrary Loan.

Some databases have a Request on Interlibrary Loan link embedded. Click the link to fill out the form. Click Submit.

Otherwise, use the Interlibrary Loan Journal Article Request Form (Library Homepage -- Interlibrary Loan (in the Quick Links box) -- Articles request form). Fill out the form with as much information as possible. Ask for help, if you have questions.

Finding Books

TREXLER LIBRARY

Search the Trexler Library Catalog to find out what books, government publications, journals, videos, etc. the library owns.

GETTING THERE: Use the shortcut search box on the Library Homepage or Library Homepage -- Library Catalogs (in the Quick Links box) -- Trexler Library Catalog

OTHER LIBRARIES

WorldCat. To find books held by other libraries, search WorldCat, a database of over 60 million library records from around the country and world. Use the ILL button to request a book from another library. (ILL can take 10-14 days.)

GETTING THERE: Library Homepage -- Library Catalogs (in Quick Links box) -- Other Library Catalogs -- WorldCat

Government Information

Muhlenberg College receives about 30% of all materials published by the Federal Government. These items cover a wide range of subject areas--from legal materials and the records of Congress to health and education information and in-depth research conducted by the Smithsonian. All of the government documents that we receive have records in the Trexler Library Catalog.

Google U.S. Government Search
http://www.google.com/unclesam
Google's search tool for state and federal webpages.

Government Documents Center (University of Michigan Library)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/
"The Documents Center is a central reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign or international. Its web pages are a reference and instructional tool for government, political science, statistical data, and news."

Government Information -- International Documents Web Search
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=4173
"This is an experimental web search that you can use to find information from intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the United Nations, World Bank, IMF, and related organizations. "

Legal Information Institute (Cornell University Law School)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/world/
"The LII collection of world legal materials gathers, country by country, continent by continent, the Internet-accessible sources of the constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, and related legal material from around the globe (excluding the U.S. material held in the LII's other collections). It also holds resources and document collections of International law. "

LexisNexis Congressional
Information on the U.S. legislature, including full text of bills from 1989 on, public laws from 1988 on, committee reports from 1990 on, House and Senate documents from 1995 on, Congressional Record from 1985 on, Federal Register from 1980 on, and more government information.

World Legal Information Institute
http://www.worldlii.org/

International Relations and Comparative Politics Websites

METASITES

Foreign Affairs Online
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjb3v/rjb.html
Excellent guide for students of foreign affairs. Includes annotated links to the following topics: US Government, Foreign States, UN, NGOs & IGOs, International Law, Human Rights, International Realations, Think Tanks and the Digital Divide.

WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
http://www.etown.edu/vl/
Compiled by a professor of International Studies at Elizabethtown College, this gateway site is organized into helpful categories. It contains a great depth of high quality information and it has been reviewed and highly ranked by several respected Social Science sources.

Political Resources on the Net
http://www.politicalresources.net/
This is a particularly useful site for comparative international politics. Organized geographically, this site asks you to choose a region, then a country to research its politics. This arrangement makes it easy to compare to countries within a region, or to compare two regions against one another.

GOVERNMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

United Nations
http://www.un.org/english/

International Monetary Fund
http://www.imf.org/

The World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org/

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
http://www.aseansec.org

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)
http://www.ecowas.int/

The Organization of American States
http://www.oas.org/

Citing Your Sources

For help using MLA Style, consult the following resources:

The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
Reference Desk Reserve 808 M689h (at Reference Desk)

Trexler Library Handout on using MLA Style
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library/reshelp/mla_example.pdf
This and other style guide handouts available from the library website. Library Homepage -- Citation Guides (in the Research box).

Writer's Handbook (Writing Center, University of Wisconsin--Madison)
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocMLA.html