International Journal of Political Economy

• 1. Introduction

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  The International Journal of Political Economy sits at the intersection of two disciplines that have long talked past each other: politics and economics. It is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to scholarly research on political economics, and its origins trace back to an earlier publication known as the International Journal of Politics. What makes the journal unusual is its global reach. Many of its articles are English translations of scholarly work produced in other languages and other countries, bringing research into conversation that might otherwise never meet. The questions the journal pursues are not abstract. They concern the real conditions under which economies grow, how governments intervene in markets, and what modernization and democratization actually require.

• 2. From Politics to Political Economy

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  The journal's former name, International Journal of Politics, tells a story about an evolving intellectual focus. At some point, the scope expanded to take economic questions seriously alongside political ones. Political economy as a field insists that market outcomes and political decisions cannot be separated. Governments shape markets through intervention, and market conditions in turn shape what governments can do. The journal's renamed identity reflects that broader ambition: to treat politics and economics as a single, entangled subject rather than separate concerns best left to separate departments.

• 3. A Global Translation Project

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  One of the journal's defining features is that many of its articles are English translations of work originally written in other languages. Academic publishing is dominated by English, which means research produced in other linguistic traditions often goes unread by the scholars who might benefit from it most. By translating and publishing this work, the International Journal of Political Economy performs a form of intellectual arbitrage. Findings from one national or regional context become available to researchers working in entirely different settings. The themes the journal covers, including economic growth, market intervention, and democratization, are ones where cross-national comparison is especially valuable.

• 4. The Core Research Questions

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  Three thematic pillars organize the journal's scholarly agenda. The first is the conditions of economic growth: what factors, from institutions to infrastructure to policy choices, determine whether an economy expands or stagnates. The second is governmental intervention in the market economy, which encompasses the full range of ways states shape economic activity, from regulation and taxation to public ownership and industrial policy. The third pillar is modernization and democratization theory, a set of ideas about how political and economic development interact over time. Together these themes reflect a conviction that understanding any one of them requires grappling with the others.