Subject Area Highlight: Political Science

Political science is an inclusive discipline, incorporating a wide range of methods and approaches. Among the field's diverse areas of study are political theory; the workings of government in the United States and abroad; American foreign policy; and international organizations, security, and political economy. The Boston College Libraries offer digital resources to appeal to political scientists of all stripes. In addition to databases that deal directly with politics and government, the Libraries provide resources of interest relating to history, economics, philosophy, and current news. Here are highlights of a few of these resources:

 

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)

CIAO bills itself "the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs," and it does a fine job fulfilling this. Fifteen years' worth of scholarship is gathered on this site, including not only journal articles and abstracts and full-length books, but also hard-to-find material such as research institute working papers, NGOs' series of occasional papers, foundation-funded research projects, conference proceedings, and policy briefs. In addition to research material, CIAO offers country and regional maps and data, as well as teaching material, including case studies, course packs, and syllabi.
Tip: Sign up for the email newsletter, offering notification of monthly content updates.

 

CQ Electronic Library (CQEL)

The Boston College Libraries now offer access to three components of the CQ Electronic Library: CQ Weekly, CQ Researcher, and CQ Encyclopedia of American Government. The online version of CQ Weekly presents the periodical's well-known exhaustive coverage of Congress in an interface that allows for searching of articles and floor votes by keyword, date, bill number, or topic. Published since 1923, the award-winning CQ Researcher presents in-depth overviews 44 times a year on vital political and social issues. The online version includes an archive from 1991 to the present. The CQ Encyclopedia of American Government offers over 2000 articles on the Presidency, Congress, Supreme Court, and Elections, supplemented by data, images, primary source documents, and other enhancements.
Tip: In CQEL, you can search across all three databases at once; check "Document History" to see documents previously viewed from all three databases; or save "Favorite Documents" from all three databases for later viewing.

 

Past Masters

View published and unpublished works and correspondence of major figures in political philosophy with the Past Masters database. It includes works by Augustine, Bentham, Hegel, Hobbes, and Marx and Engels, in addition to works and selected correspondence by Locke and Sidgwick. The collections British Philosophy 1600-1900 and Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill offer works of dozens more philosophers, including Francis Bacon, David Hume, Thomas Paine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith.
Tip: User the "Power Search" to search across one or more titles that you select or within the category "Political Thought and Theory."

 

Michelle Baildon
Acting Collection Development Librarian, History and Political Science