Research Guides: Political Theory: Overview

Background Information

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Find articles written by experts on concepts, theories, and thinkers in philosophy. This is the best place to start for understanding on ideas from philosophy.

Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window
Use to find overviews and suggested citations for major authors.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics This link opens in a new window
Peer-reviewed encyclopedic articles on politics

Encyclopedia of Political Theory
Publication Date: 2010
Examines the ideas of the major political theorists from before Plato to our own times; the main schools of political thought; the concepts and issues that have captured the imagination and attention of political theorists; and some of the main institutions and practices inspired by political thought.
The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy
Publication Date: 2012
Synthesis and critical views on the scholarship on Authority, Equality, and Freedom, and Democracy, there are articles on less classical topics such as Race, Historical Injustice, Deliberation, Money and Politics, Global Justice, and Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory.
The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory
Publication Date: 2006
Chapters by political theorists look at the state of the field, where it has been in the recent past, and where it is likely to go in future. A handbook has articles that summarize the research and thought on specific topics, and give you citations to associated major scholarship.

Ebsco Political Theory search
Start here for scholarly articles on political theory. This searches Political Science Complete and Philosopher's Index at the same time.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is helpful in finding older scholarship that may not be represented in other databases. Be sure to use the subject filter on the left side for political science or philosophy.
ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials PLUS This link opens in a new window
Any topic relating to religion

Library Search
This is your best bet for interdisciplinary topics. Look for subject filters like politics, political thought, political philosophy, or political ethics to help focus your search results.

Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Fulltext scholarly journals covering various topics
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Religion, Reform, and Society This link opens in a new window
Primary sources on religious and philosophical movements in the 19th century.
Oxford Studies in the Enlightenment This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary coverage of the Enlightenment

Sometimes it's helpful to search a major journal to focus your results rather than only searching across large databases.

Political Theory
This is a major journal for this field. Look for the search icon to perform a keyword search.
Contemporary Political Theory
This is another major journal, only available in a business database, so be sure to search this in addition to searching across other databases.
Journal of Political Philosophy

Books can offer scope and context to your research. You might also find books written by specific thinkers.

Library Search
Look for subject filters like politics, political thought, political philosophy, or political ethics to help focus your search results. Use the Library Catalog filter when searching for primary source texts, as they tend to be found in books.
Library Search for Political Science -- Philosophy
This is a Library Search on the subject of political science and philosophy. Add your own keywords to the search to narrow the results.