GOVT 402: Borders, Boundaries, and Democracy

There is no single database or search engine available for locating theoretical scholarly literature. Start researching early to give yourself time to locate these sources. Below are some search tips for locating theory focused literature:

1.  Include 'Political Theory' and related words as a Keyword
   • In addition to your regular keywords for your topic also include ones for political theory, democratic theory, philosophy, ethics, etc.
     • An example search might look like: "political theory" and "minority rights" and sovereignty
2. Use the Advanced Search in JSTOR
   • The advanced search in JSTOR allows you limit to specific disciplines and see a list of the journals under that subject area. Take a look at the philosophy and political science categories.

Another way to locate political theory/philosophy articles is by going directly to the journals rather than searching in databases. This can take longer, but almost all journals allow for keyword searching and it can make it easier to find the theoretical articles you'll need. 

1. Browzine provides a short list of political theory and philosophy journals available through the library. For the most recent issues you'll be able to see a table of contents for the issues. For later issues (pre-2005) a link is provided to search the website or database we have access through. 
2. In the box below are lists of specific journals you should consider looking at to locate theoretical and empirical scholarly articles. Most journal links will provide you table of content views for most recent issues (post-2005 generally). 

Be sure to use interlibrary loan to get access to articles we don't have access to through our collections.