Politics: Databases

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy. The database is building on the merged backfiles of Political Science Abstracts, published by IFI / Plenum, 1975-2000, and ABC POL SCI, published by ABC-CLIO, 1984-2000. Since 2000, development of the serials list has focused on expanding international coverage. As of November 2005 approximately 1,500+ titles are being monitored for coverage; of these, 67% are published outside the United States. The references cited in the bibliography of the source article have been included for citations to core journals in political science, added to the database since 2001, and for all journals added since 2004. Each individual reference may also have links to an abstract and/or to other papers that cite that reference; these references are linked both within Worldwide Political Science Abstracts and across other social science databases available on the ProQuest platform. All records added since 2000 are indexed using a thesaurus of over 3,000 terms. (Provided by Publisher).

Parliamentary Papers 

We have expanded our access to UK Parliamentary Papers to include House of Lords Parliamentary Papers (1800 to 1910), House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (2015 to 2023) and Public Petitions to Parliament (1833 to 1918). 

House of Lords Parliamentary Papers, 1800 to 1910 

This collection is of international significance, revealing previously unknown material such as statistical data, oral evidence, letters and business papers relating to Britain, and the many parts of the world that were under British influence. Examples include reports relating to the abolition of slavery, evidence presented about the working conditions of children employed in cotton mills and letters from the Governor-General of India describing the Indian rebellion of 1857. 

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 2015 to 2023 

This resource allows researchers to explore the British perspective on events from the recent past through an authoritative archive of official government documents including drafts of legislation, and reports from committees. One such source is the Treasury Committee report on “Jobs, growth and productivity after coronavirus” which includes documented oral testimony from Professor Bart van Ark, the Professor of Productivity Studies at the Alliance Manchester Business School. 

Public Petitions to Parliament, 1833 to 1918 

Petitioning has been a popular form of political participation for centuries, and this collection will allow researchers to exploit new sources on the formative role of petitions to Parliament during the nineteenth century (1833 to 1918), an unparalleled period of political modernisation and democratisation in Britain. This collection illuminates attempts by ‘the people’ to influence Parliament, in contrast to the traditional top-down view of history. Users will be able to analyse the social, geographical, religious, and gender compositions of popular responses to key contemporary issues and undertake detailed textual and rhetorical analysis of the petitions. 

In addition to searching across the U.K. Parliamentary Papers database collection (the default option) unticking the Advanced Search option allows you to select and search specific modules, including Hansard (1803-2005) and these recent acquisitions. 

This resource will be of particular interest to the University’s interdisciplinary research groups in the Humanities such as the Politics, Institutions and Policy Research Group and the Manchester Centre for Regulation, Governance and Public Law (ManReg).

Oxford Bibliographies Online

Oxford Bibliographies Online is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary resource encompassing material from 43 diverse discipline areas across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.   

Developed in collaboration with scholars worldwide, this database offers authoritative and updated research guides that blend the features of an annotated bibliography with those of a high-level encyclopaedia. Each article serves as an up-to-date, reliable guide to current scholarship across a wide array of disciplines, complete with original commentary and detailed annotations.  

The platform's advanced discoverability tools help users locate the content they need—be it chapters, books, journal articles, websites, blogs, or data sets. Users can sign in to save searches, create personalised lists of citations, and access links to full-text content in print and online.  

Additionally, email alerts notify users of updates to articles and bibliographies.  

With its multidisciplinary scope, Oxford Bibliographies Online is an invaluable resource for teaching and research across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences and complements our access to Oxford Research Encyclopaedias in providing accurate, peer reviewed and regularly updated summaries.  

Archives of Sexuality and Gender

This database, currently the largest portfolio of digital primary source material to address this complex area of cultural studies, encompasses social history, social and political science, psychology, health, and policy studies.

The Library offers access to three diversely sourced collections. The broad expanse of LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 and sex and sexuality from the sixteenth century to the twentieth allow scholars to trace how sexual norms have changed over time, the evolution of public health, changing gender roles, and the ebb and flow of social movements and activism. Researchers can also draw upon a wider pool of material to uncover hidden histories, such as the full text of the landmark Wolfenden report (1957), and the testimonies that underpinned its findings.

The newly acquired, “Community and Identity in North America” archive comprises over a million pages of mainly unique or unpublished material, detailing how identities developed in different social conditions across the Americas. This collection also widens our offer to interdisciplinary groupings such as the Morgan Centre, CIDRAL and CSSC, whose work informs the University’s pioneering MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture. 

These collections have been selected to complement our growing reserves in the area – both digital (Gender: identity and social change and Defining Gender) and physical (LGBQT+ holdings in our Special Collections) - with the latter recently boosted by the acquisition of the archive which will feature prominently in the forthcoming ‘Secret Public’ exhibition at the Rylands.

The database incorporates multiple filtering options, including a term frequency tool, which enables mapping of the usage of a word or phrase by content type or popularity over a period of years. Researchers can also cross-search the entirety of the Library’s content hosted on the Gale Primary Sources platform.

Global Issues Library

Global Issues Library is an extensive resource examining major societal challenges such as migration, preservation of human rights, security, and environmental issues. It provides diverse content, such as reports, essays, and letters, documentaries, photographs, and case studies to help analyse historical and current events. Curated by scholars worldwide, it takes an interdisciplinary approach encompassing historical, political, sociological, anthropological and ethical perspectives. Collections include:

• Border And Migration Studies 
• Contemporary Global Issues 
• Engineering Case Studies 
• Environmental Issues  
• Human Rights Studies  
• Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies 
• Revolution and Protest  
• Security Issues  
• Trade And Globalization Studies  

This extensive multidisciplinary resource is a valuable resource for teaching and research across Geography, Global Development, Humanitarian and Conflict Response, Politics, Sociology, and Earth and Environmental Sciences. It also aligns closely with the University's Social Responsibility and sustainable development goals.

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers

British politics and culture have had a profound influence on people, places and events around the world. For students and researchers exploring any aspect of this influence – in society, law, colonization, economics, foreign policy and more – government documents are essential. ProQuest’s House of Commons Parliamentary Papers is the only online source for the complete file of 18th to 20th-century papers, spanning nearly 11 million pages from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material dating back to 1688.

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers are foremost among the richest and most detailed primary sources for the past three centuries, for Britain, its colonies and the wider world. As such, they constitute a major part of the world’s historical record. Parliamentary Papers influenced public opinion and social and political philosophy and provided a forum for the ideas of thinkers of the day.

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers  (HCPP) includes the complete file of House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, also known as Sessional Papers or Blue Books, dating from 1715 through to today.

This includes:

• Bills – drafts of legislation, to be reviewed through various parliamentary stages.
• House of Commons Papers – documents resulting from the work of the House of Commons.
• Command Papers – government papers conveying information or decisions the Government wishes to draw to attention of the House, presented ‘by Command of Her Majesty’.

The latter two categories breakdown further into:

• Reports of Committees – Select or the Whole House. Appointed to investigate issues of concern.
• Reports of Commissioners – commissions appointed by the Crown to investigate social problems, to conduct inquiries into events, and as a preparation for legislation.
• Accounts – statistical information, originating primarily from the Treasury, the Board of Trade and the War Office/Admiralty.
• Papers – correspondence from ambassadors, governors, army officers abroad; commercial, trade and navigation accounts, statistical abstracts: judicial, taxation, etc; census data; slavery and slave trade documents; treaties.

Plus, the 18^th Century Collection includes pre-Hansard debates, House of Lords and House of Commons journals, rare private bills, other legislative materials, and reports and papers presented to both Houses (Provided by Publisher).

Le Monde Newspaper Archive 

The Library offers full-text online access to the Le Monde historical archive (1944–2000). This invaluable resource allows researchers and students to delve into the 20th-century content of this globally respected French newspaper, renowned for its independent analysis, balanced coverage, and high journalistic standards. Offering critical insights and opinions, Le Monde is essential for studying French society, culture, and politics, serving as a valuable additional voice for researchers examining this volatile period of recent history across Europe and beyond.  

With enhanced online access, users can explore significant events, key figures, and trends through detailed searches across articles, photos, ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more. The ProQuest platform also enables cross-searching with other major global newspapers like The New York Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Times of India, and The Jerusalem Post. This feature enriches comparative research, allowing users to explore how different publications addressed the same issues, deepening their understanding of historical events and their impact on diverse cultures and societies. 

London Evening Standard Archive

Print culture remains integral to both teaching and research by staff and students at all levels of study, particularly in relation to press coverage of specific events as the issue of mediatisation becomes ever more pertinent within education. Accordingly, and in collaboration with academic colleagues in the humanities, the Library has arranged for the purchase of the London Evening Standard archive, which extends from its first publication in May 1827 to effectively the present day (within 1 week). Although this resource is patently of value to researchers looking at aspects of British history, politics and culture, it’s worth noting that the newspaper not only employed a wealth of foreign correspondents, but from the 1980s to 2010 it became the only paid for London evening paper – endowing it with particular significance to those undertaking work on culture in that time frame from disciplines in the social sciences such as politics and social statistics and social change.

Serving as a central access point for the paper’s evolution through variant titles, the database also allows searching across the ProQuest hosting platform which encompasses a number of other historical newspapers for additional - often more generalised – perspectives on topics. Available material incorporates news articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons (including the renowned contributions of David Low) and more. The Evening Standard’s place “at the heart of the British Empire, tucked under the arm of the British government, and wrapping the chips of the common Londoner” offers clear and fruitful scope for interrogation and re-interpretation today. The near two centuries of coverage allow researchers to trace the historical treatment of a variety of themes with the likes of observations on London fogs in the 1880s reminding us that environmental issues are not confined to any one generation. User-friendly support and indexing tools facilitate such research, with hit-term highlighting, searchable PDFs, and image downloads in PDF format.

Mass Observation Project: Series II & III (1990s/2000s) now available

Our Mass Observation Project online archive has been extended providing further material covering the 1990s and 2000s.

The Mass Observation archive is a pioneering project documenting the social history of Britain. It gathers valuable primary source materials, including survey responses, diaries, letters, lists, maps and photographs, offering a comprehensive insight into the everyday lives, experiences and opinions of ordinary people. These rich records, generated in response to a series of questionnaires (‘directives’), cover diverse themes such as current events, friends and family, the home, leisure, politics, society, culture, work, finance and the economy and new technology.

Material in Mass Observation Project, (1981-2009), addresses, in depth, a range of topics including attitudes to the USA, reading and television habits, morality and religion, Britain's relations with Europe, UK elections, and pivotal events such as the Falklands War, fall of the Berlin Wall, the Miners’ Strike, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and 9/11.

The collection stands as an invaluable resource for studying social trends in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In particular, it holds significant value for the University's interdisciplinary research groups in the Humanities, such as the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives, the Cathie Marsh Institute (CMI) and the Centre On the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CODE).

Use alongside our Mass Observation Online archive (1937-1967), providing primary material from the original Mass Observation study, for access to some of the most comprehensive sources for qualitative social data in the UK.