The Max Planck Institutes are some of the most well-respected academic research institutes in the world, and their Institute for the Study of Societies "builds a bridge between theory and policy by conducting basic research on the self-organization and governance of modern societies". Coordinating their research efforts with several other well-known institutes (such as the Center for European Studies at Harvard University), theprimary objective of the Institutes is to develop an empirically based theory of the governance of advanced industrial societies as they are immersed in the processes of economic globalization and internationalization. Full details of their work are available on the site, but academics and other interested parties will want to take a look at both their discussion papers and working papers, which are made available here as well.