POLITIES AND SOCIETIES

Aims and Scope

Polities and Societies provides a forum for scholarship that approaches politics, institutions, and societies as globally connected yet locally enacted phenomena, encompassing governance, political economy, security, and social structures across regions and historical settings.

The journal publishes theory-driven, empirically grounded, and critically oriented scholarship in the contemporary social sciences, including political science and comparative politics, international relations and foreign policy analysis, political economy and development studies, sociology, ethnography, and social anthropology, area studies, governance and public administration, and security studies and conflict analysis. It is open to both generalist/theoretical contributions and empirical papers grounded in specific regional contexts.

All submissions must demonstrate a clear conceptual framework, engage with relevant theoretical literature, and be supported by systematic evidence, whether qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods; purely descriptive or atheoretical papers are not within the journal's scope. Submissions are expected to articulate their relevance for a global scholarly audience, demonstrating how contextually grounded analyses contribute to broader conversations in the social sciences.

Polities and Societies particularly encourages contributions that challenge established frameworks, offer perspectives from under-represented intellectual traditions, or apply comparative lenses to regions and polities typically studied in isolation. Contributions are expected to engage seriously with theory and prior scholarship, remaining grounded in systematic evidence rather than abstraction detached from empirical or societal concerns.

The journal welcomes submissions from all regions of the world, with particular encouragement for scholarship on Central Asia, Eurasia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and South Asia, and especially welcomes cross-regional comparisons. It embraces pluralism in perspectives, methods, and epistemological traditions, and actively encourages scholarship that questions dominant paradigms, offers alternative interpretations from under-studied contexts, and challenges intellectual orthodoxies.

Article types

Submitted articles should be theory-driven, empirically grounded, and critically oriented, engaging with significant developments, debates, and transformations in political science, international relations, political economy, sociology, and related social sciences. Contributions should integrate a clear conceptual framework with systematic evidence  qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods - to illuminate what is happening, why it matters, and what can be learned for scholarship, policy, and practice.

Polities and Societies publishes four main types of contributions:

  • Research Articles

Research Articles form the core of the journal. These contributions are theory-driven and empirically grounded, and are evaluated through a double-blind peer review process.

Submitted Research Articles typically:

  • Take as their starting point a clear conceptual framework and engage seriously with relevant theoretical literature;
  • Draw on systematic qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods evidence, including case studies, process tracing, comparative designs, survey research, or ethnographic fieldwork;
  • Use theory and prior research as resources for interpretation, not as ends in themselves;
  • Develop insights that extend beyond the immediate empirical or regional context;
  • Translate findings into clear implications for scholarship, policy, and practice.

Indicative length: 8,000–10,000 words (including references)

  • Research Notes

Research Notes are shorter, focused contributions presenting a single finding, methodological insight, or conceptual argument. They should be clearly framed, theoretically grounded, and make a discrete but well-evidenced contribution.

Indicative length: 4,000–6,000 words (including references)

  • Review Essays

Review Essays offer critical engagement with a cluster of recent books or a body of literature, developing an original interpretive argument rather than a purely descriptive summary.

Indicative length: 5,000–8,000 words (including references)

  • Forum / Debate

Forum / Debate contributions are typically invited responses to major articles published in the journal, or exchanges on pressing intellectual and policy debates. These pieces are expected to be concise, argumentative, and directly engaged with the positions under discussion.

Indicative length: 2,000–4,000 words (including references)

Title of the journal: Polities and Societies

Language: English

Periodicals: quarterly (4) 

Scope:

· Political science and comparative politics

· International relations and foreign policy analysis

· Political economy and development studies

· Sociology, ethnography, and social anthropology

· Area studies (Central Asia, Eurasia, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and other regions)

· Governance, institutions, and public administration

· Security studies and conflict analysis

· Media and Journalism

· Normative Studies

· Education

· Law and legal studies