Chapter 1: What is Politics?

Politico
A major player in political journalism, with portals for US and European Union news.

World Politics Review https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/
A partially free website with comprehensive coverage of international politics and policy.

The Economist https://www.economist.com/
Magazine specializing in economics, politics, and international affairs, with strong global coverage.

Vox https://www.vox.com/politics
Produces in-depth ‘explainers’ on political current affairs, US focused but international in scope.

National Political News
Most political news is covered at the national and regional level. Here is a list of good sources of political news in English for many major nations that are considered generally credible and largely unbiased, though freedom and quality of the press does vary between nations.

· Politico (USA) https://www.politico.com/

· PBS Newshour (USA) https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics

· National Public Radio (USA) https://www.npr.org/sections/politics/

· CBC (Canada) https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics

· South China Morning Post (China) https://www.scmp.com/

· Caixin Global (China) https://www.caixinglobal.com/

· CNA (Asia) https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia

· The Times of India (India) https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

· The Japan Times (Japan) https://www.japantimes.co.jp/

· ABC (Australia) https://www.abc.net.au/news/politics

· Al Jazeera (Middle East) https://www.aljazeera.com/

· Politico EU (European Union) https://www.politico.eu/

· BBC (UK) https://www.bbc.com/news/politics

· France 24 (France) https://www.france24.com/en/france/

· Deutsche Welle (Germany) https://www.dw.com/en/

· Folha De Sao Paulo (Brazil) https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/

· Buenos Aires Times (Argentina) https://batimes.com.ar/

· Africanews (Africa) https://www.africanews.com/

· The Vanguard (Nigeria) https://www.vanguardngr.com/

· eNCA (South Africa) https://www.enca.com/

Chapter 2: Political Ideas and Ideologies

The Political Compass https://www.politicalcompass.org/
Running for more than two decades, this site sorts shows where you sit on the ideological spectrum.

Online Library of Liberty https://oll.libertyfund.org/
Has many documents on liberalism, democracy, and freedom, including full books, available for free.

Heritage Foundation https://www.heritage.org/conservatism
An influential conservative think tank, Hertiage produces a podcast and commentary on conservatism.

PolicyEd https://www.policyed.org/
Run by the Hoover Institute, provides policy analysis from a traditionalist conservative perspective.

Fabian Society https://fabians.org.uk/
Historically influential left-wing think tank, associated with the labour movement in the UK.

Foundation for Progressive Studies https://feps-europe.eu/
Based in Belgium, a leading think tank and library advocating social democracy in the world.

Marxist Archive http://www.marxists.org/archive/
Archive of Marxist documents which give a critical perspective on global issues.

Heinrich Böll Foundation https://www.boell.de/en
Associated with The Greens party of Germany, it specializes in green analysis of politics and policy.

Anarchist Library https://theanarchistlibrary.org/
An online library of anarchist texts and documents throughout history.

The Feminist Institute https://www.thefeministinstitute.org/
Project linking together archives and repositories of feminist documents and history.

Chapter 3: Politics and the State

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/index.html
Hosts summaries and analysis of important political philosophers, including those in this chapter.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://iep.utm.edu/
Peer-review summaries of theories, including Hobbes, Rousseau, and other state theorists.

CATO Institute https://www.cato.org/
An influential libertarian think tank, analyzing politics and policy from a minimal-state perspective.

Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies https://hait.tu-dresden.de/
German research center specializing in the study of abuse of state power and totalitarianism.

Failed State Index https://fragilestatesindex.org/
Well-regarded index studying risk, vulnerability, and capacity of states around the world.

Chapter 4: Democracy and Legitimacy

International IDEA https://www.idea.int/
International organization that advocates for and reports on democracy around the world.

Global Democracy Coalition https://globaldemocracycoalition.org/library/
Hosts a large library of open-source materials on democracy around the world.

World Movement for Democracy https://www.movedemocracy.org/
A networking site with links to hundreds of democracy groups and study centers worldwide.

Centre for Deliberative Democracy https://www.delibdem.org/
Research, peer-reviewed scholarship and news from a deliberative democracy perspective.

Freedom House http://www.freedomhouse.org/
Gives country ratings of democracy, civil liberties, and the press.

Council of Europe https://www.coe.int/en/
European organization researching and promoting democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

European Center for Populism Studies https://www.populismstudies.org/
Research center specializing in documenting and analyzing modern populist politics.

Chapter 5: Regimes of the Modern World

CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/
Up-to-date general information on the countries of the world.

Library of Congress National Guides https://guides.loc.gov/law-library
The Library of Congress has research guides on the governments of all the world’s nations.

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) https://www.v-dem.net/
Ongoing academic project providing expert analysis and ratings of national regimes.

Polity Project https://www.systemicpeace.org/polityproject.html
A longer-running projects rating world regimes between democratic and authoritarian.

Bertelsmann Transformation Index https://bti-project.org/en/
Ranks the transformation of non-Western regimes with political, economic, and governance indicators.

Global State of Democracy Initiative https://www.idea.int/gsod/gsod
Hosted by IDEA, it tracks the global state of democracy across various indices and reports.

Chapter 6: Nations and Nationalism

H-Nationalism Network https://networks.h-net.org/h-nationalism
Provides users with a clearinghouse of scholarly nationalism information and research.

Association for Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism https://asen.ac.uk/
An interdisciplinary student-led research association on nationalism, race, and ethnicity.

Encyclopedia of Self-Determination https://pesd.princeton.edu/
Explores important concepts and cases regarding national self-determination.

Scalabrini Migration Center http://www.smc.org.ph/
Research and publications devoted to deepening the understanding of migration.

Connections https://www.connections.clio-online.net/
Specialist forum on the history of cultural transfer and transnational relationships.

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization https://unpo.org/
Group that represents hundreds of self-identifying nations that lack international recognition as such.

Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org/
American organization which tracks extremist politics and hate speech, including ultranationalism.

Chapters 7: Political Economy and Globalization

World Economic Forum http://www.weforum.org/
Independent international forum with articles and debates on global economics.

International Monetary Fund https://www.imf.org/en/Research
Includes an extensive research library and database on global economic policy and statistics.

Peterson Institute http://www.piie.com/
Independent, non-profit, research institution devoted to the study of international economic policy.

National Bureau of Economic Research https://www.nber.org/
Respected non-profit which has a section dedicated specifically to political economy research.

Library of Economics and Liberty http://www.econlib.org/
A concise encyclopedia and articles on a variety of economic ideas in practice – global and domestic.

Mises Institute https://mises.org/books-library
Its online library provides many free works on neoliberalism, market economics and political economy.

Worldwide Economics and Politics Data https://ncgg.princeton.edu/wep/dataverse.html
A searchable data resource for comparative and international political economy.

ETH Zurich Swiss Economic Institute https://kof.ethz.ch/en/
Produces dozens of global economic indicators, including indices measuring globalization.

Chapter 8: Politics, Society and Identity

Bowling Alone Companion Site http://bowlingalone.com/
Provides access to societal data used in the creation of the book, and links to civil society efforts.

Institute for Women’s Policy Research https://iwpr.org/
Think tank specializing in public policy and governance and its impact on women.

Barnard Center for Research on Women https://bcrw.barnard.edu/
Research, analysis and politics from a feminist and African American perspective.

Minority Rights Group https://minorityrights.org/
International NGO with reporting on the political and social rights of minorities around the world.

Institute of Race Relations https://irr.org.uk/
Long-standing UK organization publishing on racial politics and justice in Europe and internationally.

Urban Institute https://www.urban.org/
Research institute with data and policy analysis on racial equality and politics in the United States.

Movement Advancement Project https://www.lgbtmap.org/
American think tank on sexuality and gender identity issues in politics and law, with international links.

Public Religion Research Institute https://www.prri.org/
Conducts research and polling on the intersection of religion, faith-based culture, and politics.

Chapter 9: Political Culture and the Media

Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture https://iasculture.org/
Research center with many projects focusing on the intersection between politics and culture.

World Values Survey https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp
Major international project collecting data globally on social and political values and culture.

Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/
US-focused but worldwide public polling and research on political, social, media, and cultural views.

European Social Survey https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/
The ESS provides charts, data and surveys related to Europe’s political and social culture.

Center for Democracy and Technology https://cdt.org/
Examines and advocates for policies that support democracy in the digital era.

Archive of Political Emails https://politicalemails.org/
Over a million emails from American political candidates and elected officials, searchable.

NYU Center for Social Media and Politics https://csmapnyu.org/
Academic center that researches and publishes on issues regarding social media and politics.

HKS Misinformation Review https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/
Hosted by Harvard University, provides rapid response research on fake news and misinformation.

Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org/
Independent organization studying and promoting free speech and media in the digital age.

Chapter 10: Representation, Elections and Voting

International Foundation for Electoral Systems https://www.ifes.org/
Global organization studying elections worldwide, with large library of election materials and reports.

ElectionGuide https://www.electionguide.org/
Maintained by the IFES Center, it’s a global database of electoral systems and election results.

Constituency Level Election Dataset http://cle.wustl.edu/
Maintains a database of results for over 1000 elections in more than 60 countries.

Comparative Study of Election Systems http://www.umich.edu/~cses/
An international, collaborative program of survey research among election study teams.

Electoral Integrity Project https://www.electoralintegrityproject.com/
Academic project studying the fairness and integrity of elections around the world.

Electoral Reform Society https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/
A UK-based advocacy group, with comparisons and quizzes on different voting systems and designs.

MIT Election Lab https://electionlab.mit.edu/
Broad resource on election data, election technology, and voting research in the United States.

Chapter 11: Parties and Party Systems

Political Party Database https://www.politicalpartydb.org/
Scholarly project collecting data on global parties, includes archived campaign materials.

Manifesto Project Database https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/
Archived and searchable database of thousands of party platforms and manifestos since 1945.

International Democracy Union https://www.idu.org/
Global alliance of center-right and mainstream conservative parties.

Centrist Democrat International https://www.idc-cdi.com/
Political international centrist conservative parties, particularly those identify as Christian democrats.

Liberal International https://liberal-international.org/
International group of political parties adhering to liberalism, particularly its classical formulation.

Socialist International https://www.socialistinternational.org/
Political international of parties identifying with democratic socialism and social democracy.

Progressive Alliance https://progressive-alliance.info/
Worldwide organization of center-left and progressive parties, split from Socialist International in 2013.

Global Greens https://globalgreens.org/
Political international of the world parties adhering to Green ideologies or politics.

Chapter 12: Groups, Interests and Movements

Social Capital Gateway www.socialcapitalgateway.org
Links to sites that are devoted to social capital and interest group activity.

NGO Branch of the UN Secretariat http://esango.un.org/civilsociety/
Information concerning NGOs to representatives of the United Nations system.

Transparency International https://www.transparency.org/
Tracks corruption globally, with sub-projects that track interest group politics globally.

Open Secrets https://www.opensecrets.org/
Non-profit organization tracking lobbying and elections spending by interest groups in the USA.

Corporate Europe Observatory https://www.corporateeurope.org/en
Reports on the influence of lobbyists and major interest groups in European politics.

International Chamber of Commerce https://iccwbo.org/
The largest global association of business interests, with thousands of partnerships globally.

International Trade Union Confederation https://www.ituc-csi.org/
International federation of unions and organizations advocating for the interests of the working class.

Reveal Digital https://www.jstor.org/site/reveal-digital/
Open access database of documents to social movements and alternative voices in politics.

Interface Journal https://www.interfacejournal.net/
Open access journal of research on contemporary global social and political movements.

Mapping American Social Movements https://depts.washington.edu/moves/
Academic project that maps various US social and political movements since 1900.

Center for the Study of Political Graphics https://www.politicalgraphics.org/
Archive of prints, posters, pamphlets and paraphernalia relating to social movements.

Chapter 13: Constitutions, Law and Judges

Constitute Project https://www.constituteproject.org/
A searchable database of the world’s constitutions.

Comparative Constitution Project https://comparativeconstitutionsproject.org/
Dataset comparing features and designs of constitutions, with comparisons and statistics.

Oyez https://www.oyez.org/
Multimedia directory of US Supreme Court cases and decisions, including oral arguments recordings.

United Nations Office of Human Rights https://www.ohchr.org/en/
UN body with resources, definitions, and documents around global human rights.

International Court of Justice https://www.icj-cij.org/
The principal judicial organization of the United Nations, with links to cases and international laws.

United Nations Treaty Collection https://treaties.un.org/
Full-text repository of hundreds of treaties and agreements signed between states.

Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.org/en/
Influential NGO that advocates for human rights and documents infringements around the world.

World Legal Information Institute http://www.worldlii.org/
Directory of global laws and legislative actions, with links to relevant national databases.

Chapter 14: Political Executives and Leadership

CIA World Leaders Directory https://www.cia.gov/resources/world-leaders/
Up-to-date listings of the political leaders and cabinets of every country in the world.

Rulers.org https://rulers.org/
Large database cataloguing every heads of state and government in all countries back to 1700.

Britannica World Leaders https://www.britannica.com/browse/World-Leaders
Biographies and expanded details on hundreds of political leaders of note throughout history.

WhoGov Dataset https://politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/whogov-dataset/
A large dataset of cabinet members and political elites from 177 countries with biographical info.

Presidential Power Blog https://presidential-power.net/
Academic project studying the relative power of world executives, including a presidential power index.

American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
Open access database of thousands of documents and analyses on the US Presidency.

Center for the Study of the Presidency https://www.thepresidency.org/
Scholarly center that researches presidential leadership and executive-legislative relations.

Barbara Lee Family Foundation https://www.barbaraleefoundation.org/
Institute that specializes in the study of women running for executive office and the challenges faced.

American Rhetoric Speech Bank https://www.americanrhetoric.com/
Collection of more than 5000 leader speeches, mostly American, often with audio or video recordings.

Chapter 15: Legislatures

Inter-Parliamentary Union www.ipu.org/
Data and analysis on the world’s legislatures, plus many relevant links to national bodies.

International Centre for Parliamentary Studies https://www.parlicentre.org/
Tracks and studies parliaments around the European Union and their legislative effectiveness.

Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association https://legislativeanalysis.org/
Independent non-profit that studies law-making and produces analysis and models for good legislation.

Center for Effective Lawmaking https://thelawmakers.org/
American center that explores issues regarding the US Congress, including bipartisanship and gridlock.

Centre for Legislative Studies https://c4ls.org/
UK-based research center on legislatures and the Westminster system, with links to key publications.

National Institute for Legislative Studies https://www.nilds.gov.ng/
Nigerian research center for building effective legislatures, particularly in the developing world.

GovTrack https://www.govtrack.us/
Tracks the activity of the US Congress and all legislative actions including voting records.

Legislation.gov.uk https://www.legislation.gov.uk/
Profiles all newly enacted legislation in the UK, with links to parliamentary activity and votes.

TrackMyEU https://www.trackmyeu.org/
Website that allows monitoring of all EU decision-making and laws, with searchable database.

Chapter 16: Public Policy and the Bureaucracy

Global Governance Practice https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/governance
World bank initiative studying the quality of public service and governance around the world.

Quality of Government Project https://www.gu.se/en/quality-government
Scholarly project that assesses and indexes the quality and strength of world governments.

Data.gov https://data.gov/
Enormous open database of US government data used to develop public policy.

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget https://www.crfb.org/interactives
Features many interactive tools to simulate how policy choices impact the US federal budget.

Understanding the Civil Service www.civilservant.org.uk
Gives information about the civil service in the United Kingdom and UK regulations.

Australia-New Zealand School of Government https://anzsog.edu.au/
Research and teaching center focusing on the improvement of public sector leadership.

RAND Corporation https://www.rand.org/
Highly influential policy think tank, focused in the US but with global coverage.

The Brookings Institute https://www.brookings.edu/
One of the most influential policy think tanks, with many areas of specialty, based in the USA.

ASAN Institute for Policy Studies https://en.asaninst.org/
South Korea-based institute that publishes on civil service and bureaucracy issues in Asia.

Bruegel https://www.bruegel.org/
Belgian think tank offering policy and governance analysis focused on Europe.

Fundação Getulio Vargas https://portal.fgv.br/en
Brazilian think tank with many areas of research, focused around policy and public administration.

Chapter 17: Multilevel Politics

Association of Centers for Federal Studies https://iacfs.org/
Links to many academic and research centers that study issues in sub-national government.

Center for the Study of Federalism https://federalism.org/
Features many useful sub-pages on types of federalism and research on federal systems.

National Conference of State Legislatures https://www.ncsl.org/
Issue-tracking, publications and research on state politics across the United States.

International City Management Association https://icma.org/
World organization of professions in local government, with many useful databases and reports.

United Cities and Local Governments https://uclg.org/
Features links to projects and research on city, town, and local government around the world.

MIT Sensible Cities Lab https://senseable.mit.edu/
Datasets and analysis on urban issues, including areas like municipal policies and policy.

Local Government Information Unit https://lgiu.org/
UK-focused center with some international research on local government issues and policy.

European Union http://europa.eu/
The official website of the European Union, with access to history, policies, processes, and data.

African Union http://www.au.int/en/
Information on the history and development of the African Union, as well as news on current activities.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations http://www.asean.org/
Official website with information on history, institutions and structure as well as resources on policies.

League of Arab States http://www.leagueofarabstates.net/
Information on member states, the organization, and current activities and policy initiatives.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization https://eng.sectsco.org/
Hosts information about members, major joint initiatives, conferences and publications.

Mercosur https://www.mercosur.int/en/
Homepage of the Southern Common Market, a regional organization of South American nations.

Organization of American States http://www.oas.org/en/
Information on structure, member states and policy initiatives of OAS, as well as featured analysis.

Pacific Islands Forum https://www.forumsec.org/
Regional organization of Pacific nations, with news, policies, research, and information on members.

Economic Community of West African States https://www.ecowas.int/
West African political and economic union, with links to major projects, members, and issues.

Chapter 18: Domestic and International Security

FBI Criminal Data Explorer https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/
National crime database for the United States, with up-to-date statistics on crimes and arrests.

Europol https://www.europol.europa.eu/
Law enforcement agency of the EU, with many publications and reports on crime trends in Europe.

International Association of Police Chiefs https://www.theiacp.org/
Organization of policing leaders, with extensive information on areas of policing conduct and policy.

College of Policing https://www.college.police.uk/
UK-based institution which researches and promotes standards in police tactics and conduct.

Center for Policing Equity https://policingequity.org/
Think tank which explores criminal justice issues and political problems around policing.

Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe https://www.osce.org/
International organization monitoring and combating arms, security, and human rights issues.

International Institute for Strategic Studies https://www.iiss.org/
Influential authority on global security and military issues, with large databases on world armies.

French Institute of International Relations https://www.ifri.org/en
French think tank with wide coverage but specializing in geopolitical and security issues.

Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies http://www.ipcs.org/
Conducts independent research on conventional and non-conventional security issues in Asia.

Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies https://besacenter.org/
Non-partisan think tank in Israel that specializing in security and defense issues in the Middle East.

Royal Institute for Defense and Security https://rusi.org/
UK-based center providing independent analysis of military, security, defense and terrorism issues.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute https://www.sipri.org/
Information on arms transfers and production, military spending and arms control and disarmament.

Correlates of War https://correlatesofwar.org/
Large academic project that collects data on world militaries going back two centuries.

International Crisis Group https://www.crisisgroup.org/
An independent non-profit organization that works to prevent and resolve conflicts around the globe.

START Center https://www.start.umd.edu/
Homepage of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

Institute for Security + Technology https://securityandtechnology.org/
Industry-funded research center exploring issues of cyber security and digital security.

Chapter 19: World Order and Global Governance

United Nations https://www.un.org/en/
Homepage of the UN, the most prominent organization in global government and world order.

World Bank https://www.worldbank.org/en/home
International bank with a global economic development agenda, site hosts numerous databases.

International Monetary Fund https://www.imf.org/en/
International financial institution with a large amount of data on global economic issues.

World Trade Organization https://www.wto.org/
Gives information on current activities as well as reports and analysis of international trade.

Bretton Woods Project https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/
Offers critical analysis and commentary on the operations of the World Bank and IMF.

Global Governance Institute https://www.globalgovernance.eu/
European-based think tank on global governance issues and analysis of global bodies.

GLOBE Project https://www.globe-project.eu/en
EU-funded research and data portal on regional and global governance issues.

Chatham House https://www.chathamhouse.org/
UK-based think tank conducting analysis on a wide range of areas of global significance.

Carnegie Endowment for Peace https://carnegieendowment.org/
Influential US think tank that publishes widely on global politics and issues.

Leuven Center for Global Governance https://ghum.kuleuven.be/ggs
Dutch research center with academic projects studying the future of global governance.

Center for China and Globalization http://en.ccg.org.cn/
Non-government Chinese think tank looking at globalization from an East Asian perspective.

Center for International Governance Innovation https://www.cigionline.org/
Non-partisan think tank on global governance issues, particularly in the digital age.