Political Science
Key contact
Present | Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
Highlights
- Political Science Complete
- POLLUX – Information service for political science in Germany
- IREON – The International Relations and Area Studies Gateway
- DeFacto – Online political science platform about Swiss politics (in German, French, Italian)
- Année Politique Suisse – Collection of topics on Swiss politics (in German, French)
- Institute of Political Science at the University of Basel
Press databases
Political science and administration – new acquisitions in the previous month
Subject-specific training courses
As part of the introductory course for political science students, regular training courses take place in the autumn semester (library catalogue, holdings and subject information as well as electronic information and media).
If required, the subject librarian is happy to provide further training for students and researchers. Contents and location according to individual agreement.
Advice on finding resources
We offer scientific subject advice for university members:
- assistance with searching for information a specific topic
- the use of subject-specific databases
- help with search strategies
For more information, please contact the subject librarian directly.
All training opportunities
An overview of all training courses at the University Library – introduction at the start of the semester, training courses, guided tours, reference management, etc. – can be found here.
Federal level
- The Federal Council
- Bundesblatt (in German, French, Italian)
- Swiss Parliament
- Curia Vista (Database of Parliamentary Proceedings)
- Official Bulletin
- Federal Statistical Office
Cantonal level
- Konferenz der Kantonsregierungen (KdK) (in German and French)
Basel-Stadt
- Regierungsrat
- Geschäfte und Berichte des Regierungsrates
- Grosser Rat
- Geschäfte und Dokumente des Grossen Rates
- Sitzungsprotokolle des Grossen Rates
- Kantonsblatt
Basel-Landschaft
Political science associations
- Swiss Political Science Association (SPSA)
- Austrian Political Science Association (AuPSA) (mainly in German)
- German Political Science Association (GPSA) (mainly in German)
- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Politikwissenschaft (DgfP) (in German)
- European Political Science Association (EPSA)
- European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
- American Political Science Association (APSA)
- International Political Science Association (IPSA)
- European Peace Research Association (EuPRA)
Forums, societies, centres
- Centre for Democracy Studies, Aarau
- Institute of Federalism, University of Fribourg
- ch Stiftung für eidgenössische Zusammenarbeit (in German, French, Italian)
- Forum Helveticum
- SFM – Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies, University of Neuchâtel
- Convivenza – International Center for Minorities
- Center for Security Studies ETH Zurich
- Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Parlamentsfragen (SGP) (in German, French, Italian)
- Schweizerische Vereinigung für Sozialpolitik (SVSP) (in German, French)
- Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Verwaltungswissenschaften (SGVW) (in German, French)
- KPM Center for Public Management (KPM), University of Bern
- Institut de Hautes Études en Administration Publique Université de Lausanne
- CHStat
Portal for public administration and information about political authorities in Swiss cantons and cities (in German, French)
Specialist institutions at the University of Basel
- Department of Political Science (in German)
- swisspeace – Swiss Peace Foundation
- Graduate School of Social Sciences (G3S)
- Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences (GS-HSS)
- IGS North-South - International Graduate School North-South
- Institute for European Global Studies
- URIS – Network of Ukrainian Research in Switzerland
Additional specialist institutions
- Department of Political Science, University of Zurich
- Institute of Political Science, University of Bern
- Department of Political Science, University of Lucerne
- Institute of Political Science, University of St.Gallen
- Center for Comparative and International Studies, University of Zurich / ETH Zurich
- Département de Science Politique et Relations Internationales Université de Genève (in French)
- Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lausanne
- Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva
- Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva
The political science discipline is represented at the University of Basel by the Political Science Department, which is affiliated with the Department of Social Sciences of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The research focuses on peace and conflict issues, foreign policy analysis, the field of European integration, comparative political science (especially parliamentarianism), and European and international decision and negotiation analysis.
General literature
- Reference works (lexicons, dictionaries, bibliographies, etc.)
- Introductory literature and textbooks
Political methods - Political sociology
- Political education
- Political history of ideas and theory
- Ideologies
- Democracy/sovereignty
- Political legitimation
- Political philosophy
- etc.
Comparative politics
- Comparative government
- Government theory and political systems in individual countries (focus on Switzerland (municipalities, cantons, federal government), Europe, Africa, Middle East, supranational organisations)
- Political party research, interest groups, political groups
- Elections
- Political and social movements
- Political communication, public opinion
- Political participation
- Political disputes
- etc.
International relations
- Theories
- Development aid and development policy
- Foreign policy
- Security policy
- Peace and conflict research
- Peace building, peacekeeping, peace making
- New political actors (including NGOs)
- International and supranational organisations
- Regional integration
- Global governance
- International legitimation
- International relations between individual countries
Various policy areas (excluding economic and financial policy)
- Social policy
- Migration policy
- Gender policy
- Educational and cultural policy
- Health policy
- Environmental policy
- Military policy
- etc.
Switzerland
- Open Data Basel-Stadt
Open government data portal Canton Basel-Stadt - Open Data Basel-Landschaft
OGD portal Canton Basel-Landschaft - Open Data Stadt Zürich
Data catalogue of the City of Zurich - opendata.swiss
Swiss open government data platform
EU and international organisations
- European Data Portal
Portal for open data of EU institutions - OECD Data
OECD data portal - UNdata
Data service of the United Nations
Europe
- data.gv.at
Open government data service | Austria - GovData
Open government data portal | Germany - data.gouv.fr
Open government data platform | France - dati.gov.it
Open government data hub | Italy - data.gov.uk
Open government data catalogue | United Kingdom
North America
- Data.gov
U.S. Government's open data | USA - open.canada.ca
Open government data portal | Canada
Reference management
The University Library offers regular introductory courses and training sessions on various reference management programs for all members of the university.
Plagiarism detection
The University Library supports lecturers, researchers and students with regard to honest scientific works by providing the Turnitin plagiarism detection software.
Course reserves
University lecturers have the opportunity to set up print course reserves for their courses during the semester and to provide their students with individual journal articles as well as book chapters in electronic format as digital course reserves through ADAM.
Dissertations
The University Library is responsible for the archiving of dissertations written at the university. The regulations of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences apply to the submission of dissertations.
Text and data mining (TDM)
Research projects which require access to TDM analytical methods for licensed digital content at the University Library are offered first-level support by the University Library.
Research data management
The University Library regularly offers training courses and workshops on creating data management plans. The library also advises and supports researchers at the university with their requirements for modern data management over the entire life cycle of research data. Detailed information can be found here.
OA publications fund
In a pilot phase (2020-2025) the University of Basel is making a fund available for their researchers for the financing of Open Access publication fees. The eligibility criteria are listed here.
Institutional repository and OA publication platforms
Through edoc, the University Library operates the institutional repository of the University of Basel. It lists all university-generated scientific publications and, whenever legally possible, makes them freely accessible worldwide in full text.
For the publication of OA journals, the periodical portal eterna is available for university members. The publication platform emono offers the possibility of publishing books and series as Open Access. Further information can be obtained here.