Theories of Political Processes

An unfortunate consequence of the incredible explosion in the number of social science journals since the 1960s is that the literature has become highly balkanized. Today articles on politics are routinely published in so many disciplines that it has become almost impossible for scholars to trace major trends outside of their own subfields. Nor can Ph.D. candidates ensure they have mastered the literature, as it is difficult even to discover much of what has been published. This book addresses these problems by providing a much-needed general guide to important journal articles about politics.

In compiling this guide to 10,000 of the most significant articles about politics that have been published in all disciplines, Brunk considered over 250,000 candidate papers. He focuses on five types of research: articles of major theoretical importance, articles offering empirical tests of theories, articles dealing with subjects not addressed elsewhere, articles providing broad reviews of the theoretical literature, and articles about politics in non-political science journals. These are grouped by subfield and by the specialized topics that have received the most intensive scholarly attention, allowing researchers easy access to the bibliographical information that they need.