Policy Researcher Tutorial

---

27. International Policy Sources (optional)

Scope note: This web page supplements information needs of students in SW530 who wish to make a cross-national comparison between the U.S. and another country. Students will NOT be quizzed on this material.

---

Background Sources | Cross-national Policy Sources

Background Sources on Nations

The World Bank e-library

• One of the most comprehensive collections in the area of social and economic development.
• All current and recent World Bank titles, documents and papers are available in PDF and other user-friendly format.
• Over 2000 Policy Research Working Papers are also available.
• Titles become available on or about publication date of the print edition.
• Browse the e-Library by region, such as Africa, East Asian, Eastern Europe, Latin Ameria and the Middle East.
• Under advanced search, select broad subject headings which include Gender, Health, Nutrition and Population, Poverty, Public Policy and Social & Cultural Issues.

Eldis Gateway to Development Information (Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK )

• Arranged by country with links to newspapers, profiles, government agencies and statistics as well as economic, demographic, and environment reports
• Sources primarily include US and international documents, such as the IMF country reports or FAO special reports
• Quick access to country profiles

Demographic, Social and Housing Statistics - ( United Nations )

Population, Health and Human Well-Being

• This World Resources Institute site includes a database of countries where you can look up a country and find data on the number of people living on $1-day, $2-day
• You can also see maps of the various levels of poverty within each country.

Adminet - World

• Meta index to information for over 200 countries
• Includes government, defense, sports, cities, health, industries, environment, universities
• Arranged by country with separate indexes for subjects and regions
• Although Adminet is French, the text for this segment is English

Europe World Year Book Online
Detailed political and economic surveys of over 250 countries and territories including recent statistics, directory information, and current analysis. Plus information on over 1,650 international organizations.

Historical Abstracts
Indexes 2000 journals on world history since 1450 (excluding U.S. and Canadian)

Country resources from the U of M Documents Center and the Graduate Library:

World Development Indicators (alphabetically by country)
Statistical Resources on the Web: Foreign Government Data Sources Mostly non-U.S. sources of demographics, arranged by comprehensive sources and by individiual countries
Foreign Governments: Comprehensive Web Site Listings (Contains material not easily found elsewhere) 
United States Foreign Policy
International Treaties
Foreign Governments: Sub-Saharan Africa,
Resources on African Studies
Foreign Governments: Middle East and North Africa
University of Michigan Library: Near East Division
Digital Resources for Middle East Studies
Links to Internet Resources on the Middle East and Judaica
Foreign Governments: Asia and the Pacific
UM South East Asia Index Page
Foreign Governments/Central/South America/Caribbean

The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)
FBIS is a United States government operation which translates the text of daily broadcasts, government statements, and select news stories from non-English sources around the world. One report with translations is issued for each of eight world regions for each day. The text of these translations are available in paper (1958-60), microfilm (1961-74), microfiche (1975-96), and a combination of the internet and CD-ROM, 1996 to present. Use Newsbank for the 1975-1996 period and World News Connection for recent content.

II. Cross-national Policy

AccessUN   (1944-2005)
The premier index to United Nations documents including Official Records, masthead documents, draft resolutions, meeting records, UN Sales Publications, and the UN Treaty Series citations. Also included is the full-text of several thousand UN documents.

Access World News
Full-text content of local and regional newspapers. Each newspaper has its own distinctive focus offering a variety of viewpoints on local and world issues. Paid advertisements are excluded.

Family & Society Studies Worldwide   
Access via web:  EBSCO

• Guide to using Family & Society Studies Worldwide.
• A "comprehensive, systematic, and non-evaluative resource of research, policy, and practice literature in the fields of Family Science, Human Ecology, Human Development and Social Welfare. FSSW provides over 455,000 abstracts and bibliographic records drawn from over two thousand professional journals, books, popular literature, conference papers, government reports, and other sources."
• The most international database in Social Work and is especially strong in immigrant populations and policy.
• Compatible with RefWorks. 

PAIS International (Public Affairs Information Service)

• Access via web: CSA Illumina
• 1972-    (Updated monthly)
• Contains references to over 553,300 journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, research and conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, internet material, etc. concerning public affairs worldwide. The database can be searched by broad subject headings, such as culture and religion, human rights and social conditions and policy or more specifc subtopics, like social policy, poverty and homelessness and marrige and family life. Compatible with RefWorks
  

International Political Science Abstracts

• 1989-
• Provides abstracts of political science articles published in scholarly journals and yearbooks worldwide

Human Development Report (UNDP)

• Web version summarizes regional and country statistics on economic, social, and educational development
• Each annual version focuses on an individual topic
  + 1995 issue addressed gender equality
  + 1997 issue carried poverty statistics by country with additional data on life expectancy, literacy, and per capita gross domestic product
• Sub-Saharan Africa, The Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South and Central America

Family Policy Database (Downloadable data in Excel for Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States published in two studies: Gornick, J. C., Meyers, M. K. , and Ross, K. E. 1997. “Supporting the Employment of Mothers: Policy Variation Across Fourteen Welfare States." Journal of European Social Policy 7(1): 45-70 and Gornick, J. C. and Meyers, M. K. . 2003. Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.) See also home page Luxembough Income Studies.

Social Security Administration. Office of Policy. (The Office of Policy serves as the Social Security Administration's focal point for policy analysis and research, evaluation, and statistics. Social Security Programs Throughout the World 2004 offers a comparison of the social security systems in 172 countries.)

= University of Michigan Licensed Database -- Accessible from campus workstations and from remote locations to valid U-M community members with signon or with valid IP address.