About Us
Founded in 1930, the Political Quarterly publishes analysis, insight and informed opinion on politics and public policy in the UK and globally. Our publisher is Wiley Blackwell. To fully search our past journal issues please visit Wiley's website.
We are broadly progressive in outlook, but we publish a wide range of authors and viewpoints. Our current editors are Deborah Mabbett and Ben Jackson, Special Collections editors Colm Murphy and Peter Sloman, Reports and Surveys editors Wyn Grant and Maria Sobolewska, and Literary editor Donald Sassoon. The day-to-day affairs of the Political Quarterly are managed by our editorial steering group.
We aim to provide access to current academic debates and draw on critical intellectual arguments, but our hallmark is the use of plain English, avoiding theoretical and technical jargon.
“What I have most wanted to do... is to make political writing into an art" – George Orwell
Other things we do
As well as our journal and our blog, we organise a selection of events each year.
We also sponsor the prestigious Orwell Prize for political writing.
Occasionally, we publish books. These include Rethinking Democracy, edited by Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright (2019), Britain beyond Brexit,edited by Gavin Kelly and Nick Pearce (2019), Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, edited by Michael Jacobs and Mariana Mazzucato (2016) and Defending Politics. Bernard Crick at The Political Quarterly, edited by Stephen Ball (2013).
Governance
We are governed by an independent editorial board:
Our history
‘I conceived of the idea in 1927 of a serious political review in which political ideas could be discussed at adequate length, and shortly afterwards found that Kingsley Martin had arrived at a similar idea’. So wrote William Robson in 1971, reflecting on the beginnings of The Political Quarterly.
From our early days under Leonard Woolf, William Robson and Kingsley Martin to the enormous changes faced by academic journals in the digital era, we've compiled a new history of our journal.
Contact us
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch.