Polity, Journal of Political Science

“If It’s a Lie, It Must Be Important”: An Interview with Anne Norton on Identity, Property, and the Study of Politics | Polity: Vol 58, No 1

This issue’s #AskaPoliticalScientist spotlights Anne Norton, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She reflects on her path into political theory and argues scholarship must be grounded in lived reality—not fleeting trends—to tackle today’s issues. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Our latest #AskaPoliticalScientist features Anne Norton, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She shares her political awakening, discusses her work on property, and explains why she values real-world politics over academic trends.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

A Race and Capitalism Framework to Study Financial Access | Polity: Vol 58, No 1 Racialized economic inequality remains a central concern across the social sciences, yet the role of financial access in reproducing inequality has been comparatively underexplored. Existing scholarsh...

Patricia D. Posey’s “A Race and Capitalism Framework to Study Financial Access” reveals how race and capitalism shape financial access. Three mechanisms—exclusion, extraction, and valuation—perpetuate racial inequality and profit.
Read it: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#Race #Capitalism

Alfredo Gonzalez’s “Logics of Race and Capitalism” reveals that from 1926 to 1940, military service did not guarantee citizenship due to Congressional delays, perpetuating racial inequality.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#Citizenship #Naturalization #RacialCapitalism

Logics of Race and Capitalism in the Political Economy of Time: The Case of Military Naturalizations | Polity: Vol 58, No 1 When the US exchanges citizenship rights for military service it is working within a political economy of time, where time is the medium of exchange. This paper argues that military naturalizations in...

In "Logics of Race and Capitalism in the Political Economy of Time," Alfredo Gonzalez shows that Congress deliberately delays non-citizen service members' naturalization, reinforcing racialized inequality. Read it now: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#Citizenship #RacialCapitalism #PoliSky

Betting on Black: Emergency Management Hedges on the Marginalized | Polity: Vol 58, No 1 Over the last three decades, urban cities and their residents have faced precarity. In the face of late capitalism, several metropolitan cities across the nation but particularly in Michigan, namely D...

Meghan E. Wilson's "Betting on Black" explores how Detroit's emergency managers prioritize fiscal stability over public goods for marginalized communities. She shows how race shapes risk calculation and drives inequality.
Read it: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#Capitalism #UrbanPolitics

Mapping Theories of Racial Capitalism: From Necessity to Entanglement | Polity: Vol 58, No 1 The concept of “racial capitalism” has re-emerged in recent scholarly and political debates to theorize the role of racism in shaping capitalist social orders. It has been widely taken up by scholars ...

In “Mapping Theories of Racial Capitalism,” Emily Katzenstein critiques the notion that “racial capitalism” is an empty buzzword. She examines the ties between race and capitalism through necessity and entanglement.
Read it here:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#Capitalism #PoliSky #Race

Equality, Modernity, and Inclusion in Judith Drake’s Essay in Defence of the Female Sex | Polity: Vol 58, No 1 Judith Drake’s Essay in Defence of the Female Sex (1696) is a unique contribution to early English feminist thought. Both scathingly funny and remarkably erudite, the work wades into a variety of phil...

Mary Jo MacDonald’s “Equality, Modernity, and Inclusion in Judith Drake’s Essay” examines how Drake’s 1696 feminist work argues that sexual differences do not justify excluding women from public life.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#FeministTheory #PoliticalThought #PoliSky

Which Iphigenia is Sacrificeable? Jean Racine and the Gendered Politics of Desire | Polity: Vol 58, No 1 While it has become both legitimate and commonplace for political theorists to examine plays as texts of political theory, as texts that offer theoretical reflections on political concepts and ideolog...

In “Which Iphigenia is Sacrificeable?” Janice Feng analyzes Jean Racine’s 17th-century play Iphigénie, showing that the desire to die can be a powerful political feeling shaped by gender and patriarchy. Read it here:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#FeministTheory #PoliticalTheory #PoliSky

Ruled by Women: Gynocratic Disorder in Aristotle’s Sparta | Polity: Vol 58, No 1 Recent years have witnessed the rise of right-wing rhetoric asserting that contemporary liberal democracies have allowed women to control and rule over men. Scholarship has made sense of these anxieti...

Silvia Fedi’s “Ruled by Women” links modern right-wing fears of female dominance to ancient Greek anxieties about gynocracy. She analyzes Aristotle’s Politics to argue these fears frame democracy as reliant on patriarchy. Read it: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#FeministTheory #PoliSky

Blue Moon | Polity: Vol 58, No 1

Our January issue highlights feminist theory's return, 3 excellent research articles, our Racial Capitalism Symposium series, & an “Ask a Political Scientist” interview w/ Anne Norton. @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Read it: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#PoliSky #NowOut #PoliSciResearch

Polity | Vol 58, No 1

Our January issue cover #NowOut features artist Peggy Watson’s “Worm Moon, March.” The image depicts a radiant full moon rising into the night sky, as earth worms wriggle below in the soil. You can read the January issue here:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/pol/58/1
#PoliSky #PoliSciResearch

Asaf Yakir and Doron Navot’s “Right-Wing Populist" article argues that right-wing populism in Hungary and Israel breaks from neoliberalism by rejecting bureaucracy and subverting institutional independence. Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/pol...
#Populism #Neoliberalism #PoliSky

Forty Years Later | Polity: Vol 57, No 4

Adam Przeworski’s “Forty Years Later” revisits "Capitalism and Social Democracy" and links past economic and electoral constraints on the working class to today’s right‑wing coalition targeting democratic institutions.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #WorkingClass #PoliSky

Forty Years Later | Polity: Vol 57, No 4

Adam Przeworski’s article “Forty Years Later” reviews and reassesses his predictions about capitalism and democracy and reflects on the implications of the current capitalist revolution in the United States.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #SocialDemocracy #PoliSky

The Class Constraints on Social Democracy | Polity: Vol 57, No 4

Vivek Chibber’s “The Class Constraints on Social Democracy” draws on Przeworski to contrast revolutionary and electoral socialists and analyzes parties’ organizational power to explain electoral outcomes beyond policy effects. Read it: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #WorkingClass #PoliSky

The Thesis of the Inevitability of Reformism: Fiction and Occlusion | Polity: Vol 57, No 4

August H. Nimtz’s “The Thesis of the Inevitability of Reformism” revisits Adam Przeworski’s argument on how far elections can produce reforms in social democracies, using historical cases to examine the question.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #PoliSky #SocialDemocracy

Dylan Riley’s “The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy” examines Adam Przeworski’s work through the relationship between social surplus and universal suffrage.
Read Riley’s insights here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #PoliticalTheory #Suffrage #Capitalism #PoliSky
@uchicagopress.bsky.social

The Minimalist Marxist: How Adam Przeworski United Political Science with Democracy as Free and Fair Election | Polity: Vol 57, No 4

Natasha Piano’s “The Minimalist Marxist” reflects on Adam Przeworski’s impact, arguing his study of Marxist ideology advanced research methods and encouraged a more holistic merging of subfields. Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #PoliticalTheory #PoliSky #Marxism

In “Capitalist Democracy and Socialist Strategy,” Yves Winter assesses Adam Przeworski’s arguments on capitalism, the limits of private ownership, and then applies those lessons on how to revive political participation. Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.... #Socialism #PoliSky

Polity | Vol 57, No 4

In this issue’s #ClassicsRevisited, six authors revisit Adam Przeworski’s 1985 book "Capitalism and Social Democracy," offering forty-year reflections including a response from Przeworski himself. Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/pol/2025... #Capitalism #PoliticalTheory #PoliSky

Right-Wing Populist Re-Politicization and the “Hollowing Out” of the Neoliberal State | Polity: Vol 57, No 4 Abstract Our paper investigates how right-wing populists in positions of power affect neoliberal economic policies and institutions. First, we review neoliberalism’s historical development since the 1...

Asaf Yakir and Doron Navot’s “Right-Wing Populist Re‑Politicization and the Hollowing Out of the Neoliberal State” analyzes how Viktor Orbán and Benjamin Netanyahu undermine economic policies and independent institutions. Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #Populism #PoliSky

In “When Parents Govern”, Jacob Garrett reports a study of over 100 citizens on school decision councils, finding that active participation fosters publicly oriented choices often at the expense of personal preferences.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #CommunityEngagement

When Parents Govern: Participatory Decision Making and the Engineered Public Spirit | Polity: Vol 57, No 4 For centuries democratic theorists have claimed that “taking responsibility for others in the course of collective decision making enlarges the participants’ conception of their interests.”1 The probl...

Garrett Jones’ article, “When Parents Govern” reframes democratic accountability, arguing that civic duty and personal preferences shape public participation in unexpected ways.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #PublicParticipation #CivicEngagement @uchicagopress.bsky.social

“Georgia On My Mind”: State-Level Voter Suppression After Shelby and the End of the Second Reconstruction | Polity: Vol 57, No 4 In Shelby v. Holder (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court overturned key elements of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. Joined by the other four conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts opined tha...

In "Georgia On My Mind", Adrienne Jones explains how Shelby v. Holder (2013) overturned parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, enabling states like Georgia to pass laws that limit minority voting rights.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #VotingRights #SupremeCourt #PoliSky

“Georgia On My Mind”: State-Level Voter Suppression After Shelby and the End of the Second Reconstruction | Polity: Vol 57, No 4 In Shelby v. Holder (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court overturned key elements of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. Joined by the other four conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts opined tha...

Adrienne Jones’ article, “Georgia On My Mind” analyzes the decline of the Second Reconstruction and how recent Supreme Court decisions have weakened voting rights—especially for minority voters.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #VotingRights #VoterSuppression #PoliSky

Research as “Waystation” in the Midcentury Homophile Movement | Polity: Vol 57, No 4 Homophile organizations at midcentury have long been linked to the “rise and fall” of professions like psychiatry in the American political landscape. In this paper, I engage the various ways that lea...

Elena Gambino's “Research as Waystation in the Midcentury Homophile Movement" examines homophile groups' interactions with psychiatric authority, tracing a route to freedom and offering fresh insights for queer theory.
Read it: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #LGBTQHistory #QueerStudies

Research as “Waystation” in the Midcentury Homophile Movement | Polity: Vol 57, No 4 Homophile organizations at midcentury have long been linked to the “rise and fall” of professions like psychiatry in the American political landscape. In this paper, I engage the various ways that lea...

Elena Gambino’s “Research as Waystation in the Midcentury Homophile Movement” shows how homophile organizations reshaped the homosexuality narrative, turning audiences from passive observers into active participants.
Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
#QueerStudies #PoliSky

Shame | Polity: Vol 57, No 4

Our Oct issue includes a “Classics Revisited” on Przeworski’s Capitalism & Social Democracy, 4 excellent research articles, & an “Ask a Political Scientist” interview w/ Robert Meister. Read it:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... #PoliSky #NowOut #PoliSciResearch
@uchicagopress.bsky.social

Our Oct issue cover #NowOut features artist Kelly Popoff’s “Shame.” Part of her "Americana" series, for Popoff, shame is less about cowering regret than an invitation to do differently next time. See it: www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/pol/2025... #Polisky #PoliSciResearch
@kellypopoff.bsky.social