The Inter-Parliamentary Union, a "world organization of parliaments of sovereign States" since 1889, provides this informational site, which is highlighted by two searchable databases, PARLINE and PARLIT. PARLINE contains information about parliaments in over 190 countries, including structure, leader, percentage of women, term, and other useful data which may include distribution by political group and sex, candidacy eligiblilty requirements, and background to the last election. A comparative search function allows qualitative and quantitative search variables and returns country parliaments that meet specifications. PARLIT contains bibliographic references to a subset of IPU's 37,000 item database. Items from 1992-present are currently available. Searches can be performed on seven variables, including country, parliamentary organization, periodical, and language. The IPU site also contains links to parliamentary web sites and other information about the organization.
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