In September 2020, Judith Grant and Claire Snyder-Hall took the reins as the new co-editors of New Political Science: A Journal of Politics and Culture, and they begin their tenure by issuing this call for papers.
The election of Donald Trump has pushed the United States to the brink of authoritarianism and intensified a variety of crises around the world. But it has also injected new life into leftwing resistance, pushing socialism to the center of political discourse in the United States for the first time since the 1800s. No longer an effective bogeyman for the right, the socialist label is being proudly claimed by people all over the country, particularly millennials and Gen Z, in the wake of the Bernie Sanders campaign; the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and others; the fast-paced growth of groups like Democratic Socialists of America, Justice Democrats, Black Lives Matter, and The Rising Majority; and the popularity of publications like Jacobin.
New Political Science has long provided political science scholars on the left a place to publish their research. Its contributors include many who identify as Marxist or work within theoretical traditions that grow out of the political, cultural, and economic aspirations of Marxism. The journal provides a place for non-sectarian socialists, who do a wide array of interdisciplinary work related to socialist politics, and in that way, it is clearly unique among political science quarterlies.
Consequently, the incoming editorial team at New Political Science seeks articles for inclusion in a special issue that focuses specifically on the return of socialism. How can socialism enlighten and direct responses to the crises created by the unfettered rise of capital and its national security state politics after the cold war and post 2016? Right now, the world faces an burgeoning list of calamities that span the globe: sky-high levels of economic inequality; increasing polarization along urban/rural lines; police violence and mass incarceration in the US; military quagmires with no end in sight; large populations displaced by war, gang violence, and famine; attacks on immigrants and refugees; the rising popularity of white supremacists and neo-Nazis; US attacks on multilateralism; authoritarian attacks on democracy around the world; the climate emergency; violence against women and LGBT people; a global pandemic; assaults on the press, science and even on truth itself due to the rise of conspiracy politics. We seek contributions for this special issue that grapple with such crises through the lens of socialist politics, methodologies and theories.
Since 1967, The Caucus for New Political Science has openly embraced a progressive agenda in critical, but rigorous scholarship.
The following timeline will be followed for considering manuscripts:
March 15, 2021: Full manuscripts of 8,000 words due for consideration for blind peer-review
May 1, 2021: Authors notified of decision to send out for blind peer review or rejection
June 15, 2021: Comments from editors and reviewers returned to authors
August 1, 2021: Final papers due to New Political Science
This issue follows the standard double-blind peer review process for special issue papers. Two reviewers are selected and asked to evaluate all of the articles individually under consideration for the special issue. Manuscripts should be submitted to New Political Science via the following link: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cnps20.
