LibGuides: Open Educational Resources (OER): Political Science

Open Resources

These textbooks have been created for free use in courses. These resources may be adopted for use as classroom text, modified to create new texts (as licensing allows), or used as a supplemental learning tool to aid in understanding key concepts.

General Political Science

Nationalism, Self-determination and Secession by Geoff Andrews & Michael Saward
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
An open text that investigates the concept of a 'nation' and what makes people strive to attain nationhood; as well as how nations, nationalism, and self-determination play a role in current political disputes.
On Civic Republicanism: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics by Geoffrey Kellow & Neven Leddy (Editors)
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
This open, edited volume seeks to provide an analysis of contemporary political issues through the lens of ancient theories - including those of Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and Wollstonecraft.
On Global Citizenship by James Tully (Editor)
License: CC BY-NC-ND
An open, edited volume that is part of the Critical Power Series from Bloomsbury Academic Publishing, dedicated to constructing dialogues around innovative work in social and political theory. This volume begins with Tully's commentary on the global field of citizenship, followed by responses and criticism from other influential authors.

United States Government

American Government 3e by Glen Krutz; Sylvie Waskiewicz
ISBN: 9781947172654
Publication Date: 2019-02-21
License: CC BY 4.0
An open text created to meet the scope and sequence requirements of a single-semester course on American government.
American Government by Timothy O. Lenz; Mirya Holman
ISBN: 9781616101633
Publication Date: 2013-08-16
License: CC BY-NC-ND
An open text created by the Florida Atlantic University Department of Political Science, exploring the role of government, politics, and policy on American lives.
American Government and Politics in the Information Age by David L. Paletz, Diana Owen, Timothy E. Cook
ISBN: 9781946135049
Publication Date: 2016-11-16
License: CC BY-NC-SA
In covering American government and politics, our text introduces the intricacies of the Constitution, the complexities of federalism, the meanings of civil liberties, and the conflicts over civil rights; explains how people are socialized to politics, acquire and express opinions, and participate in political life; describes interest groups, political parties, and elections--the intermediaries that link people to government and politics; details the branches of government and how they operate; and shows how policies are made and affect people's lives.

Political Theory

Many classic works of political theory are freely available in digital library collections, such as Hathi Trust and Project Gutenberg.

Project Gutenberg This link opens in a new window
Project Gutenberg contains over 60,000 open access books which you can view online or download.

HathiTrust
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

Course Collections

Saylor Academy
Saylor Academy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free and open online courses to anyone who wishes to learn. Most courses include readings, assignments and quizzes, and some links to outside content.
UCI Open
The University of California - Irvine has a large collection of openly licensed courses available for the public to use, licensed under Creative Commons licenses.
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW)
MIT OpenCourseWare is a publication of virtually all MIT course content. Most courses contain syllabi, course readings and/or reading lists, assignments, and exams.

Included in this section are a variety of resources provided by the Michigan and U.S. Government, which may be of use in political science coursework. As a general rule, most works created by U.S. Government employees as part of their employment are considered to be in the public domain, but always be sure to check the licenses and permissions for each resource you intend to use.

Michigan

The Michigan Manual
This is the directory of everyone and all aspects of Michigan government.
State of Michigan Legislative Publications
This is a list of all online publications for the legislature, including publications created specifically for the public.

United States

America's Historical Documents
Congressional Budget Office
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provides public information regarding the budget of the U.S. Congress, including estimates of the cost of federal credit programs, and information on how changes in economic conditions affect the federal budget. The information provided by CBO is in the public domain.
Data.gov
Raw data used by government agencies and offices for their own research.
Democracy Archives
Government & Politics Research Guide
govinfo
govinfo is free U.S. Government information and is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
National Archives
The United States National Archives acts as the nation's record keeper, keeping important legal or historical documents and materials for preservation. Most of the documents and images contained within the archive, unless otherwise noted, are in the public domain.
Office of Trade Policy and Analysis
The Office of Trade Policy and Analysis (TP&A), as part of the International Trade Administration, produces economic data on the trade policy priorities of the federal government.

Historical Resources

Primary Sources Research Guide
An overview on primary sources and links to additional resources from both the library and open sources.
Teachinghistory.org
TeachingHistory.org is a national clearinghouse of educational resources that are made openly available.
Unless otherwise noted, the site is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 License.
USHistory.org
USHistory.org contains thousands of pages covering a wide array of topics related to U.S. History. Many of the historic documents are in the public domain. All other items are individually licensed.

Disclaimer

The content provided in this guide is intended for informational purposes only. The Melvin J. Zahnow Library at SVSU does not make any assurances as to the accuracy of the information contained within linked resources, or as to the licenses and permissions granted for the use of these works. Always be certain to check the permissions for each resource before using the work.

Questions? Contact Tiler Jewell at tbjewell@svsu.edu.