LibGuides: POLS 3540: Constructing States, Nations and Democracy: Policy Institutes and Think Tanks

Databases for finding think tank, NGO, and policy institute publications

Columbia International Affairs Online Journals
CIAO features a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs.
Contemporary Women's Issues
Provides full text access to information about women in over 190 countries, including journal and magazine articles, research reports, and fact sheets.
GenderWatch
This database includes full text works from contemporary scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets, conference proceedings, and government, NGO and special reports from 1970 to present.
Policy Commons
The world's largest database for public policy, with millions of reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 20,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers on disciplines including agriculture, energy, pharmaceuticals, diversity, crime, librarianship, etc.

Freedom House -- especially check out the following:
- Blog
- Nations in Transit

National Democratic Institute (NDI)
Quality of Government Institute (QOG)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on governance
Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)
Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is an unique approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. We provide a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between five high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles.
World Movement for Democracy

Like all sources you encounter, be sure to evaluate the relevance, quality, and perspective of works put out by think tanks and research institutes.

Evaluating Resources from the University of California Berkeley clearly presents key questions you want to ask of your sources:

Global Go To Think Tank Index
The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania conducts research on the relationship between think tanks, politics, and public policy and produces the annual Global Go To Think Tank Index.
Think Tank Search
From Harvard Kennedy School, this is a custom Google search of over 690 think tank websites. "For the purposes of this search, think tanks are defined as institutions affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and businesses that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. Inclusion is based upon the relevancy of subject area to HKS coursework and scholarship, the availability of the think tank’s research in full-text on the website, and the think tank’s reputation and influence upon policy making. The list represents a mixture of partisan and non-partisan think tanks."
Understanding Think Tanks
A potentially useful series of articles from On Think Tanks,
Writing about think tanks and using their research: A cautionary tip sheet
This is written for journalists, but it's questions and tips are also helpful for student researchers.