Letter from the Coeditors

• Author: Nancy Luxon,Davide Panagia,Elisabeth Ellis,Joshua Foa Dienstag
• Date: 01 October 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/00905917211031558
• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Subject Matter: Editorial

https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917211031558

Political Theory

2021, Vol. 49(5) 715 –716

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00905917211031558

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Editorial

Letter from the

Coeditors

With the fiftieth anniversary of the journal coming up next year, we have

assembled a short description and history of the journal. We haven’t tried to

do justice to its storied contents, merely to document Political Theory’s tra-

jectory from the early seventies to the present day.

First published in 1973, the journal emerged out of the disciplinary debates

and methodological disputes in American political science departments in the

postwar period.1 During that time, normative and historical inquiry had been

put under duress as a result of a postwar effort in the United States to special-

ize political science research on the basis of new methodological and behav-

ioral techniques that promised predictive knowledge about future political

outcomes. The first paragraph of the first Editorial Statement announces as

much: “POLITICAL THEORY fills a long existing need for a journal of

political philosophy that is broad in scope and international in coverage. The

absence of such a journal was especially unfortunate because dialogue is

essential for the practice of political philosophy.”2

Since its original publication the journal has remained a major reference

of scholarly debate in political theory throughout the world. The journal

was first housed at Columbia University and edited by Robert Lamb and

Walter Odajnyk. Since then, the editorial offices have moved depending on

who occupied the position of editor in chief. Benjamin Barber joined Lamb

and Odajnyk in 1974 (and remained editor until 1984). William E. Connolly

took over from Barber in 1984 and remained editor until 1990. The subse-

quent editors were Tracy B. Strong (1990–2000), Stephen K. White (2000–

2006), Mary G. Dietz (2006–2013), Jane Bennett (2013–2017), and Lawrie

Balfour (2017–2021). The current team of coeditors represents the first

time that the journal is edited by more than one person, although the journal

has always enjoyed active editorial boards, executive editorial committees,

and consulting editors.

Along with the editorial teams, Political Theory also has a book review

editor in charge of the book review section of the journal. The current book

review editor is Nancy Luxon (University of Minnesota). Previous book

review editors include Richard E. Flathman (Johns Hopkins University),

Bonnie Honig (Brown University), Jane Bennett (Johns Hopkins University),

1031558PTXXXX10.1177/00905917211031558Political Theory

letter2021