LibGuides: Comparative Politics: Global Issues

Transnational NGOs and Think Tanks

NGOs and think tanks are good starting points for investigating current global issues. See additional boxes below for links that address issues individually.

Think-tank Index The index is authored by James McGann, of the University of Pennsylvania's International Relations Program. See also the 2008 full report at: Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program

Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) Human rights organization. Also search the Amnesty International Library

Chatham House Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Nonpartisan foreign affairs organization .

Foreign Policy Association (FPA)

Human Rights Watch

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) United Nations Development Programme

NGOs Links and Resources Global Policy Forum

Global Policy Forum is an independent policy watchdog that monitors the work of the United Nations as well as global policy-making.

NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks

OneWorld.net The best free link to individual NGOs. See Partner Directory.

Think Tanks Directory Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. Comprehensive directory of think tanks.

World Public Opinion Provides information and polls on international public opinion on various international issues.

Includes poll methodologies and questionnaires

Democratization

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
US State Department
Comparative Democratization Project
Stanford University
The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES): a collaborative program of cross-national research in over fifty states, conducts research on the effects of electoral institutions on citizens’ attitudes and behavior, and democratic institutions across different political regimes.
Democratic Governance (UN)
United Nations. Development Programme (UNDP). Resources, research, statistics, and description of UNDP's efforts at democratization.
Democratization Policy Council
IDEA
Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance. International IDEA's global databases and networks include Voter Turnout, Political Finance Laws and Regulations, Electoral System Design, Quotas for Women, ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, iKNOW Politics.

Education

International Archive for Educational Data
The International Archive of Education Data (IAED) is a project sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
OECD Online Education Database
The UNESCO/OECD/EUROSTAT (UOE) database on education statistics is compiled on the basis of national administrative sources, reported by Ministries of Education or National Statistical offices according to international standards, definitions and classifications.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
The Data Centre contains over 1,000 types of indicators and raw data on education, literacy, science and technology, culture and communication.
The UIS collects the data for more than 200 countries from Member States and international organizations.

Environment | Sustainability

Earth Trends World Resources Institute
Environmentally Sustainable Development NGOs
Duke University

Human Rights

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
US Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. By alphabetical order of country.
Gender Equity Index (GEI)
SocialWatch
Human Rights Library
University of Minnesota.
Human Rights Tufts University
The Fletcher School, Edwin Ginn Library,Tufts University.
Index of international and national governmental documents.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
UN Refugee Agency
UNICEF Conventions of the Right of the Child

Immigration & Migration

Database on Immigrants and Expatriates
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD). Database with information on the foreign-born population for almost all member (approximately 100) countries of the
OECD.
International Organization for Migration
Migration Policy Institute Data Hub

Labor

International Labour Organization (ILO)
International labor statistics for many nations from 1988 -, including an International Labour Migration database.
LABORSTA
International Labour Organization (ILO).
Database covering economic data from 1945 including un/employment, work wages, labor
costs, consumer prices, occupational injuries/accidents, and strike data (from 1969).
OECD Employment Database
US Department of Labor
Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) Publications. Includes individual country profiles.

Poverty

Global Distribution of Poverty
NASA and Columbia University. Global, national, and subnational datasets and maps.
UC Atlas of Global Inequality
University of California (Santa Cruz), Center for Global, International and Regional Studies
(CGIRS).

World Health

CIA World Factbook
Maps, general demographic and statistical information by country. Includes economics, life expectancy, fertility and death rates.
Mortality Data (WHO)
World Health Organization (WHO) database. Provides annual reported data on mortality statistics by age, sex and cause of death.
Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
State of the World's Children (UNICEF)
pdf
WHOSIS |World Health Organization (WHO)
WHOSIS, the WHO's Statistical Information System, is an interactive database bringing together core health statistics for the 193 WHO Member States. It comprises more than 100 indicators, which can be accessed by way of a quick search, by major categories, or through user-defined tables. The data can be further filtered, tabulated, charted and downloaded. The data are also published annually in the World Health Statistics Report released in May.
World Health Report (WHO)
Global Health Facts (Kaiser Family Foundation)
Comparative health statistics from hundreds of countries.

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Comparative Politics

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