Political Science resources: Additional resources

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Special topics in Political Science

Canadian politics & government

Background information

The Canadian encyclopedia
Provides access to fact-checked, current, and broad overviews of Canadian history, culture, landscape, and events.

The language of Canadian politics: A guide to important terms and concepts
Provides access to brief, cross-referenced essays on more than 500 subjects of contemporary, recent, and historical significance, from "Aboriginal rights" to "writs".

How Canadians govern themselves
This guide from the Library of Parliament provides background information on the history and procedures of Canada's system of government, information about how the government connects to Canadians' daily lives, as well as links to other branches of the federal government.

Articles

Canadian Research Index
Provides access to publications issued by hundreds of government agencies and departments in the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, as well as scientific and technical report literature issued by research institutes and government laboratories and policy, social, economic, and political reports.

Canadian Electronic Library
Provides access to publications from a variety of Canadian public policy institutes, research institutes, think tanks, advocacy groups, government agencies and university research centers.

CRKN Canadian Publishers Collection
Provides access to over 8,000 current titles from over 50 leading Canadian publishers.

Government websites

Government of Canada 
Provides information about GC departments and agencies

LEGISinfo
Provides information on legislation currently before the Parliament of Canada

Parlinfo
Provides information and data on Canadian people, parliaments, departments/committees, political parties, legislation, elections/ridings (1867 to today)

Government of British Columbia
Provides information about BC ministries and organizations

Metro Vancouver
Provides information about the metro Vancouver region.

City of Vancouver
Provides information about Vancouver, BC.

United States politics & government

The Princeton encyclopedia of American political history
Provides access to articles covering the major forces that have shaped American politics from the founding to today, including political history topics such as eras, institutions, political parties, presidents, and founding documents, as well as current scholarship on topics like military, electoral, and economic events, as well as social movements, popular culture, religion, education, race, gender, etc.

Gale encyclopedia of U.S. history: Government and politics
Provides a concise history of the U.S. government and political scene throughout American history, with a particular emphasis on how government and politics effects, and is affected by, social change.

The Oxford guide to the United States government
Published in the form of an A to Z guide, this resource offers a comprehensive overview of the U.S. presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court.

The Miller Center: The Presidency
This website from The Miller Center (a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history) offers access to U.S. presidential and public policy materials, including speeches, interviews, and recordings.

International politics & government

Aside from the resources listed below, visit the SFU Library's International Studies guide to access many relevant resources.

NIRA's world directory of think tanks
This NIRA (National Institute for Research Advancement) resource lists c. 500 public policy research institutes from 100 countries and regions, organized by their name in English within groupings by country. Entries contain the following information, if available: institution name/acronym, location & contact info (email, URL, etc.), status (independent, government, NGO, etc.), staff, executive officers and PR managers, funding sources).

Harvard Kennedy School think tank search
Provides access to a Google custom-search of more than 1200 think tanks and research centers.

Other SFU Library research guides

For more help and additional resources, check out the specialized resource guides on the home page for Political Science.

Also review the following research guides that provide research help in their respective areas: