The Political Quarterly

The Political Quarterly is an academic journal of political science that first appeared from 1914 to 1916 and was revived by Leonard Woolf, Kingsley Martin, and William A. Robson in 1930. Ben Jackson (University of Oxford) and Deborah Mabbett (Birkbeck University of London) were appointed editors-in-chief in 2016.

The journal, which has print and digital editions, is broadly centre-left in outlook.^{[citation needed]} It has published articles on politics and public policy by a wide range of political thinkers in the UK and internationally. It aims to provide access to current academic debates and draw on critical intellectual arguments, but its hallmark is the use of plain English, avoiding theoretical and technical jargon.

The journal is published by Wiley-Blackwell. Former editors include Leonard Woolf, Andrew Gamble, Kingsley Martin, Sir Bernard Crick, Michael Jacobs, and David Marquand. Besides an online blog, the journal publishes books. Titles include Rethinking Capitalism: Economics and Policy for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth by Michael Jacobs and Mariana Mazzucato (2016) and Defending Politics. Bernard Crick at The Political Quarterly, edited by Stephen Ball (2013).

The journal organises political debates and events including its Annual Lecture series. It is also one of the sponsors of the prestigious annual Orwell Prize for political writing. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2018 impact factor of 1.780.

The journal was, in its initial manifestation, founded and edited by W. G. S. Adams and first appeared in February 1914 under the imprint of Humphrey Milford at Oxford University Press. It described itself as "a journal of contemporary political studies" that aimed to provide "a broad and an impartial consideration of modern political and social development". Due to wartime constraints, the journal ceased publication in 1916. The cessation was lamented by Adams's friend Harold Laski when, in his inaugural lecture at the London School of Economics in 1926, he referred to the resultant lack of any journal of political science.

Such lack was remedied with the revival of the title four years later in what Arthur Salter described as a "continuation" of Adams' Political Quarterly and a "living tribute to his fruitful initiative". In the balance of this article, reference to the Political Quarterly is to the journal as re-established in 1930. Kingsley Martin and William Robson, who were then junior members of the teaching staff of the London School of Economics and Political Science, took the lead in bringing the idea to fruition. As William Robson later wrote: "We felt the need for a forum where a philosophy, a policy and a programme could be hammered out for the socialist movement, which was growing in strength but was lacking a coherent body of ideas. ... The Political Quarterly ... was to provide a bridge between the world of thought and the world of action, between the writer, the thinker and the teacher on the one hand and the statesman, the politician and the official on the other." Leonard Woolf later described the journal as being "written for experts by experts".

The first meeting was held at the London School of Economics and consisted of about 40 or 50 leading intellectuals. Soon afterwards the founders issued a printed prospectus. The signatories included adherents of both the Labour and Liberal parties, and some were not known to belong to any party.

The minimum amount considered necessary to ensure a trial run of three years was £2,000, allowing for substantial deficits during this period. Martin, Robson and Woolf persuaded a number of their friends and acquaintances to contribute sums varying from £5 to £150, but the total came to less than half the amount needed. After a series of persuasive letters from Robson, Bernard Shaw was convinced to donate £1,000 to plug the gap. They set up a small committee to take responsibility for launching the quarterly. This consisted of Leonard Woolf, A. M. Carr-Saunders, Harold Laski, J. M. Keynes, T. E. Gregory, Kingsley Martin and William Robson.