LibGuides: UW Casper: Political Science

Political Science Databases

Global Issues Library This link opens in a new window
Collection of digitized primary source material, government documents, publications, and videos covering issues, topics, and events from the late 1890s to the present including border and migration, atrocities and human rights violations, peacekeeping, climate change, terrorism, revolutions, and human trafficking. Specific events explored include the U.S. and Mexico Border, the Rwandan Genocide, the Arab Spring, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and climate migrants in the Asia-Pacific region. On the Alexander Street platform.
News, Policy & Politics Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
An archival collection comprising the backfiles of 15 major magazines (including the Newsweek archive), spanning areas including current events, international relations, and public policy. These titles offer multiple perspectives on the contemporary contexts of the major events, trends, and interests in these fields throughout the twentieth century. Subject coverage includes political history, international relations, public policy, current events, diplomacy/peacemaking, democracy, military operations, global economic affairs, human rights, ethics, international development, and sustainability.
PAIS Index [Public Affairs Information Service] This link opens in a new window
Social science indexing database that covers journals, government documents, books, reports, and conference papers back to 1972. On the ProQuest platform.
Political Science Database This link opens in a new window
Political science indexing/full-text database that covers journal articles back to 1985. On the ProQuest platform.
SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new window
Provides access to e-books, reference works, and streaming videos in the subject areas of business & management; counseling & psychotherapy; criminology & criminal justice; education; geography, earth & environmental science; health & social care; media, communication & cultural studies; politics & international relations; psychology; and sociology.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Major political science indexing database that covers journal articles back to 1975. On the ProQuest platform.

Government Documents Databases

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (1976-present) This link opens in a new window
U.S. government document indexing/full-text database that covers publications from all federal agencies back to 1976. On the GPO platform.
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Political science full-text database collection that includes congressional publications back to 1789. On the ProQuest platform.
U.S. Declassified Documents This link opens in a new window
Full text of Presidential, Executive Branch, and Congressional documents since World War II declassified under the Freedom of Information Act. Subjects include foreign relations, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, civil rights movement, assassinations, etc. On the Gale platform.
Westlaw Campus Research This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive database of legal materials, including cases, statutes, and regulations of the U.S. government and the various state governments; case law from 1789 to present; and current statutes and regulations. Documents can also be accessed through broad subject categories.

Primary Source Databases

Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
A database provided by Gale that combines several of Gale's primary source databases such as Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Indigenous Peoples: North America, and several others.
History Vault This link opens in a new window
Searchable database of primary source materials. Has different modules including American Indians and the American West, American Politics and Society from Kennedy to Watergate, American Politics in the Early Cold War, Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century, Confederate Military Manuscripts and Records, Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files, Law and Society since the Civil War, Margaret Sanger Papers, NAACP Papers, New Deal and World War II, Office of Strategic Services (OSS)-State Department Intelligence and Research Reports, Pinkerton's National Detective Agency Records,
Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources, 1600-1970 This link opens in a new window
Legal database on the Gale platform.
World News Connection Archive This link opens in a new window
News archive of newspaper articles, television and radio broadcasts, online sources, conference proceedings, periodicals, and non-classified reports from around the world collected and translated by and for the U.S. Government.

Books

Against Autonomy by Sarah Conly Since Mill's seminal work On Liberty, philosophers and political theorists have accepted that we should respect the decisions of individual agents when those decisions affect no one other than themselves. Indeed, to respect autonomy is often understood to be the chief way to bear witness to the intrinsic value of persons. In this book, Sarah Conly rejects the idea of autonomy as inviolable. Drawing on sources from behavioural economics and social psychology, she argues that we are so often irrational in making our decisions that our autonomous choices often undercut the achievement of our own goals. Thus in many cases it would advance our goals more effectively if government were to prevent us from acting in accordance with our decisions. Her argument challenges widely held views of moral agency, democratic values and the public/private distinction, and will interest readers in ethics, political philosophy, political theory and philosophy of law.
Call Number: Available Online & JA71 .C575 2013
ISBN: 9781107024847
Publication Date: 2012-11-08
Allegories and Metaphors in Early Political Thought by Kevin Dooley Allegories and Metaphors in Early Political Thought: From Plato to Machiavelli examines allegories and metaphors that best exemplify the ideologies of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Niccolo Machiavelli. Author Kevin Dooley's approach allows readers to gain a greater understanding of each thinker's ideas through the lens of metaphor, which stimulates imaginative discussions and more thoughtful reflections.
Call Number: PN51 .D637 2019
ISBN: 9781433154683
Publication Date: 2018-12-05
Black Political Thought by Sherrow Pinder (Editor)
Call Number: E185.61 .B594 2020
ISBN: 9781107199729
Publication Date: 2019-11-14
Classical Greek Oligarchy by Matthew Simonton Classical Greek Oligarchy thoroughly reassesses an important but neglected form of ancient Greek government, the "rule of the few." Matthew Simonton challenges scholarly orthodoxy by showing that oligarchy was not the default mode of politics from time immemorial, but instead emerged alongside, and in reaction to, democracy. He establishes for the first time how oligarchies maintained power in the face of potential citizen resistance. The book argues that oligarchs designed distinctive political institutions--such as intra-oligarchic power sharing, targeted repression, and rewards for informants--to prevent collective action among the majority population while sustaining cooperation within their own ranks. To clarify the workings of oligarchic institutions, Simonton draws on recent social science research on authoritarianism. Like modern authoritarian regimes, ancient Greek oligarchies had to balance coercion with co-optation in order to keep their subjects disorganized and powerless. The book investigates topics such as control of public space, the manipulation of information, and the establishment of patron-client relations, frequently citing parallels with contemporary nondemocratic regimes. Simonton also traces changes over time in antiquity, revealing the processes through which oligarchy lost the ideological battle with democracy for legitimacy. Classical Greek Oligarchy represents a major new development in the study of ancient politics. It fills a longstanding gap in our knowledge of nondemocratic government while greatly improving our understanding of forms of power that continue to affect us today.
Call Number: Available Online & JC75.O43 S56 2017
ISBN: 9780691174976
Publication Date: 2017-06-27
Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought by Tae-Yeoun Keum An ambitious reinterpretation and defense of Plato's basic enterprise and influence, arguing that the power of his myths was central to the founding of philosophical rationalism. Plato's use of myths--the Myth of Metals, the Myth of Er--sits uneasily with his canonical reputation as the inventor of rational philosophy. Since the Enlightenment, interpreters like Hegel have sought to resolve this tension by treating Plato's myths as mere regrettable embellishments, irrelevant to his main enterprise. Others, such as Karl Popper, have railed against the deceptive power of myth, concluding that a tradition built on Platonic foundations can be neither rational nor desirable. Tae-Yeoun Keum challenges the premise underlying both of these positions. She argues that myth is neither irrelevant nor inimical to the ideal of rational progress. She tracks the influence of Plato's dialogues through the early modern period and on to the twentieth century, showing how pivotal figures in the history of political thought--More, Bacon, Leibniz, the German Idealists, Cassirer, and others--have been inspired by Plato's mythmaking. She finds that Plato's followers perennially raised the possibility that there is a vital role for myth in rational political thinking.
Call Number: Available Online
ISBN: 9780674250185
Publication Date: 2020-12-08
Principles and Practice of American Politics by Samuel H. Kernell (Editor); Steven S. Smith (Editor) Combining timeless readings with cutting-edge articles and essays, Principles and Practice of American Politics, Seventh Edition, enriches your understanding of the American political system by examining the strategic behavior of key players in U.S. politics. This collection of classic and contemporary readings brings concepts to life by providing you with real examples of how political actors are influenced by the strategies of others and are governed by the Constitution, the law, and institutional rules. Carefully edited by award-winning authors Samuel Kernell and Steven S. Smith, each reading is put into context to help you understand how political actions fall within a major national political forum.New to the Seventh Edition Nine new and updated essays encourage you to reflect on the continuing debates over the polarization of the American electorate and Congress, the role of social media and "fake news" in influencing public views of politicians and issues, the fragile Trump coalition, the efficacy of polling in tracking public opinion, and other issues more relevant than ever in the wake of the 2016 elections. Additional essays challenge you to think more carefully about alternative institutions and political arrangements. The new essays present institutions of majority rule, the nature of racial discrimination, and the proper role of the court as less settled issues that provide students an opportunity to think through (and discuss) their views on the future direction of American civic life. Each selection is artfully framed by Kernell and Smith's contextual headnotes to make them appropriate for classroom use. Original readings written specifically for the volume give the book a coherent treatment of the performance of U.S. political institutions.
Call Number: JK21 .P76 2019
ISBN: 9781506390475
Publication Date: 2018-04-17
Taking Liberties by Riccardo Rebonato Riccardo Rebonato offers a critical analysis of the Libertarian Paternalist approach that has taken the political landscape by storm. This book explores the justifications used by states to influence behaviour, and the impact of such policies on individual freedoms and rights, opening up new avenues of criticism.
Call Number: JC585 .R424 2012
ISBN: 9780230391550
Publication Date: 2012-06-26
The Tyranny of Utility by Gilles Saint-Paul The general assumption that social policy should be utilitarian--that society should be organized to yield the greatest level of welfare--leads inexorably to increased government interventions. Historically, however, the science of economics has advocated limits to these interventions for utilitarian reasons and because of the assumption that people know what is best for themselves. But more recently, behavioral economics has focused on biases and inconsistencies in individual behavior. Based on these developments, governments now prescribe the foods we eat, the apartments we rent, and the composition of our financial portfolios. The Tyranny of Utility takes on this rise of paternalism and its dangers for individual freedoms, and examines how developments in economics and the social sciences are leading to greater government intrusion in our private lives.Gilles Saint-Paul posits that the utilitarian foundations of individual freedom promoted by traditional economics are fundamentally flawed. When combined with developments in social science that view the individual as incapable of making rational and responsible choices, utilitarianism seems to logically call for greater governmental intervention in our lives. Arguing that this cannot be defended on purely instrumental grounds, Saint-Paul calls for individual liberty to be restored as a central value in our society.Exploring how behavioral economics is contributing to the excessive rise of paternalistic interventions, The Tyranny of Utility presents a controversial challenge to the prevailing currents in economic and political discourse.
Call Number: Available Online & HB846 .S25 2011
ISBN: 9780691128177
Publication Date: 2011-07-25
What Is Political Philosophy? by Charles Larmore A new understanding of political philosophy from one of its leading thinkers What is political philosophy? What are its fundamental problems? And how should it be distinguished from moral philosophy? In this book, Charles Larmore redefines the distinctive aims of political philosophy, reformulating in this light the basis of a liberal understanding of politics. Because political life is characterized by deep and enduring conflict between rival interests and differing moral ideals, the core problems of political philosophy are the regulation of conflict and the conditions under which the members of society may thus be made subject to political authority. We cannot assume that reason will lead to unanimity about these matters because individuals hold different moral convictions. Larmore therefore analyzes the concept of reasonable disagreement and investigates the ways we can adjudicate conflicts among people who reasonably disagree about the nature of the human good and the proper basis of political society. Challenging both the classical liberalism of Locke, Kant, and Mill, and more recent theories of political realism proposed by Bernard Williams and others, Larmore argues for a version of political liberalism that is centered on political legitimacy rather than on social justice, and that aims to be well suited to our times rather than universally valid. Forceful and thorough yet concise, What Is Political Philosophy? proposes a new definition of political philosophy and demonstrates the profound implications of that definition. The result is a compelling and distinctive intervention from a major political philosopher.
Call Number: Available Online
ISBN: 9780691200873
Publication Date: 2020-05-05

UW Casper: Political Science

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Political Science Databases

Government Documents Databases

Primary Source Databases

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