Research Guides: PLSC 1340: Intro to Comparative Politics, Lusztig: Overview

Class Materials

Articles to diagram

Subnational Electoral Contexts and Corruption in Mexico
Societal Accountability and Grand Corruption: How Institutions Shape Citizens' Efforts to Shape Institutions

Note Taking

Synthesis Matrix for Research Papers: Google Sheets

Synthesis Matrix for Research Papers: Excel

Find background information

Research the independent variables

Find entries on your independent variables, with descriptions and ideas for related evidence. Look for cited sources. Also good for definitions of a concept.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics This link opens in a new window
Good searches in this encyclopedia are social capital, trust, education, inequality. participation.
Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
Find brief summaries of the research and links to scholarly works. Good searches in this tool are social capital, social networks, immigrant integration, multiculturalism, middle class,

The Oxford Handbook of the Quality of Government
Publication Date: 2021
A handbook offers overviews of the scholarship on specific topics. This one is good for finding citations to studies on aspects of corruption, trust, inequality, and education.

Research the Country

Political Handbook of the World
Publication Date: Published annually
Facts and analysis on each country's government, political and economic history, foreign relations, political parties, and current issues. This is a must-use resource when studying a country's politics, and is particularly strong for understanding political parties.

Europa World This link opens in a new window
Contemporary data & coverage of political & economic info world-wide

Freedom House
Look up your country to find reports on events related to freedom of the press, free and fair elections, etc.

Find more in depth sources and scholarly views

Ebsco Political Science Search
First stop for articles from political science. For articles about a country, use the name as a subject. This link searches across three databases with content relevant for political science.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
This might also be helpful for articles about the independent variables connection to modernity.
PAIS This link opens in a new window
Public Affairs Information Service covers public & social policies, international relations, & world politics
Library Search - Advanced This link opens in a new window
Use this to find books on your country. Make the name of your country a subject term. Keep your search terms broad, like politics and government. Limit the material type to books. Use the date filter to make your results within the last 5-10 years.

World Bank: Open Knowledge Repository
A collection of studies and documents from the World Bank. Click Collections to browse by resource type. Look for Country Strategy Documents and Economic and Sector Work Studies. Click Topics to browse or search for your topic.
Foreign Affairs (1922-present)
News and analysis on global issues and policy, from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Foreign Policy (1990-present)
American news publication focused on global affairs, current events, and domestic and international policy
Current History (1914-present)
Scholarly journal dedicated to explaining global events and trends

Find data

Country Politics and Economy: Statistics and Data
Find all recommended data sources linked from this guide page

Research Librarian

Megan Heuer

Contact:

mheuer@smu.edu
(214) 768-1856

Subjects: Economics, Government, International & Area Studies, Journalism, Political Science, Public Policy & International Affairs, Writing & Reasoning

Recommended Research Guides

Country Politics and Economy
Find resources for researching a specific country's government, politics, economy, and more.
Politics of Major Latin American Countries
Citation Help: Chicago AD
Find examples of citations, including citing data sources.
Political News & Opinion
Recommended news publications