Research Guides: Politics: Find Primary Sources

Primary Sources Political Science

government records
photographs
speeches
maps
firsthand accounts (such as diaries or memoirs)
drawings
laws
letters
blog posts
works of art
raw data (such as from polls or censuses)
posters
works of fiction
interviews
newspaper articles
and more!

To find primary sources specifically, couple the topic of your subject heading with relevant subheadings that relate to the historical time period, place of origin, and item format of the materials that interest you. Use the Library Search for materials.

These "complex subjects" (containing more than one idea) have their own particular notation.

Example: if you are looking for letters written by political insurgents, you might try searching for "Insurgency - Politics - Letters" for more targeted results.

Finding Primary Sources: Library of Congress Subject Headings
This guide by the MIT library showcases useful subheadings for identifying primary source material and demonstrates how you can use them in your own searches.

Examples of Primary Sources in Political Science

World Factbook This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Explore this reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) about countries around the world.
Content type: Country information, maps, data and statistics, reference materials
Coverage dates: Current year
Includes information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.
Language: English
Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Good for providing a unique perspective on all aspects of U.S. History through this large collection of congressional documents., which includes abstracts to Congressional hearings, committee reports, bill files, and more.
Content type: Primary sources, abstracts, government documents, committee reports, bill files, witness testimony, transcripts
Coverage dates: 1789-present
Full-text is available through 2010, later for some titles. Full-Text Hearings 1824-2010; (CRS) Reports 1916-present, committee prints from 1830-current; Serials Set documents from 1789; the Congressional Record (1969-1994 in print); and Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations, 1789-2017.
Language: English

Library of Congress DIgital Collections

Statista This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Explore quantitative data and statistics from a wide range of international sources on a variety of industry and social topics.
Content type: Statistics, data, industry reports, reports, graphs
Coverage dates: 2008-present
Statista also provides a variety of reports and graphs about popular and current topics.
Language: English

Political Science Data
Links to fee political science data from around the world.

International Organization Database Links

IMF Data This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Good for bank and government financial data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Content type: Data
Includes International Financial Statistics (1948-present), Government Finance Statistics, Balance of Payments Statistics (1948-present) and Direction of Trade Statistics (1980-present).
Language: English, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Spanish

Europa
Link to Europa;"The Gateway to the European Union". Most of the information is free.

UNdata This link opens in a new window
Why search here? Good for simultaneously searching major United Nations and other international statistical databases to access some of the oldest socioeconomic data available.
Content type: Data, economic data, statistics
Coverage dates: 1950-present
Includes current information on populations, trade, standard of living, and the environment.
Language: English
Keywords: UN Data

Finding Empirical Articles

Finding Empirical Articles
Video explaining empirical articles