Political Science Subject Guide

An instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions. They also include audio and video clips from BBC archives.

Ranks countries via a matrix of individual 'freedoms' as noted in the openness of media, expression, religion, governmental policy, etc.

"The mission of Transparency International is to stop corruption and promote transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels and across all sectors of society." You can look up an individual country in the Knowledge Hub and see documents related to corruption there.

Facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty. Fact Sheets are published and maintained by the State Department's Office of Electronic Information and Publications of the Bureau of Public Affairs.

V-dem is a group of social scientists that "provide[s] a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between five high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles."

Published by the Central Intelligence Agency, the World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.

A collection of links to constitutions, charters, amendments and other governmental information. In English and source languages.

It's Wikipedia, so it's subject to change, but look here for updates and revisions to national constitutions that may not be reflected elsewhere.

The Amnesty International Report 2020/21 documents the state of human rights in 149 countries and territories in 2023. Earlier reports are available online and in the library. You can also browse Amnesty International's latest research or publications by country.

These annual reports summarize human rights conditions in dozens of countries and territories worldwide. Annual reports for 1989-2022 are available online. See also other HRW occasional publications.

The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Reports – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements. 2016-2022 reports are available on the updated site. To see archived reports from 1999-2015, click here.