Library Guides: POLI SCI 2 Intro to Comparative Politics: Find Academic Materials

Quick Guide (Evaluating Sources)

When you encounter any kind of source, consider:

Authority - Who is the author? What is their point of view?
Purpose - Why was the source created? Who is the intended audience?
Publication & format - Where was it published? In what medium?
Relevance - How is it relevant to your research? What is its scope?
Date of publication - When was it written? Has it been updated?
Documentation - Did they cite their sources? Who did they cite?

Finding Article Databases

Search an article database to find citations (title, author, title of journal, date, page numbers) for articles on a particular topic. The Library gives you access to over 200 article databases covering different disciplines.

Think about which academic disciplines might write about your topic. Examples: literature, film, anthropology, history...
From the Library home page, click on "Find + borrow", select "Collections" from the dropdown menu, and choose the "Use Berkeley's electronic databases" box.
Select the appropriate academic disciplines and then look for "Recommended" databases.

Article Databases

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes books, journals, and dissertations within the field of political science and related to comparative politics, developing nations, history and theory of political science, political psychology, political economy, public administration, and public policy. [1975 - present]
International in scope.
PAIS International This link opens in a new window
Indexes books, journals, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, and web sources related to public policy, politics, economics, and social issues worldwide. (Public Affairs Information Service) [1915 - present]
Includes publications from over 120 countries. Some of the indexed materials are published in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Archive covers English-language material only.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
Access to this resource has been discontinued effective 06/30/24 due to library budget cuts. Please use Worldwide Political Science Abstracts or PAIS International as alternative resources. Indexes policy briefs, working papers, maps, course packs, journals, books, videos, internet sources, and conference proceedings from research institutes worldwide related to international affairs theory, analysis, and advocacy. [1991 - present]
Also includes links to international affairs Internet sources.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
Access to this resource has been discontinued effective 6/30/24 due to library budget cuts.

Index of publications in the fields of economics, political science, sociology and anthropology from over 100 countries. [1981 - present]
More than 70 languages are represented, with 30% percent of records published in languages other than English.
ProQuest Social Sciences This link opens in a new window
Search social sciences indexes on the ProQuest platform.
An interdisciplinary metasearch through 22 of the the social sciences indexes on the ProQuest platform. Includes EconLit, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, PAIS, PsycInfo, Sociological Abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts and more.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A multi-disciplinary database of scholarly and general interest journals, books, and reports. [1865 - present]
Articles from broad array of peer-reviewed journals, popular and trade magazines and news sources for nearly all areas of study; available in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Find Info on Political Institutions

EIU Viewpoint This link opens in a new window
Reports, analysis, data and forecasts covering economics and politics for more than 200 countries. (Previously EIU Country Profiles and Reports).
Includes commodity and industry forecasts as well as data at the global and country level in the areas of business and political risk, market opportunities, economic policy, demographics, energy, telecommunications. and macroeconomic indicators. Information is browsable by geography, industry, topic, and current theme.
The World Factbook This link opens in a new window
Online factual information, including maps, on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for hundreds of world entities.
Provides fundamental and factual reference material on a country or issue including current economic statistics and indicators by country including population, GDP, external debt and birth and death rates. Includes maps.

Freedom House Country Reports

Use Keywords to Get Results

Major Journals in Comparative Politics

The listing below are the major academic journals in Comparative Politics. The links below will take you to the journal page and you can search across each journal title by title. The better way to search across these titles and others is to use one of the databases found in the box to the left and select Scholarly or Academic or Peer Reviewed as one of your search options--the exact term will vary from database to database.

African Affairs : 1944 - present

American Political Science Review : 1906 - present

Asian Survey : 1961 - present

Canadian Journal of Political Science : 1968 - present

Comparative Political Studies : 1997 - present

Comparative Politics : 1968 - present

Demokratizatsiya : 1997 - present

Europe-Asia Studies : 1993 - present

European Journal of Political Research : 1997 - present

International Journal of Middle East Studies : 1970 - present

Journal of Democracy : 1990 - present

Journal of European Public Policy : 1997 - present