Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society is a political science journal primarily dedicated to advancing political theory with an epistemological bent. A secondary focus of the journal is on empirical work that is epistemologically informed. Critical Review is the only journal in which the ideational determinants of political behavior are investigated empirically as well as being assessed for their normative implications. Thus, while normative political theorists are the main contributors to Critical Review, we also publish scholarship on the realities of public opinion, the media, technocratic decision making, ideological reasoning, and other empirical phenomena.

The following symposia and debates convey the journal’s epistemological research agenda:

Recurrent questions discussed in Critical Review include: How can political actors know what they need to know? What are the sources of political actors’ beliefs? Are these sources reliable? Here are some examples drawn from recent issues of the journal:

Books

The Critical Review Foundation has also published books spun off from Critical Review or congruent with political epistemology:

What People Are Saying about Critical Review

"Editing is a lost art. I'm very appreciative of the care Critical Review's staff brings to the practice. It is rare to find a journal that engages so deeply and constructively with its authors." JanaLee Cherneski, Bard College

"The articles in Critical Review ask big questions about democracy and capitalism that interest just about everyone. The journal serves a vital role in reaching across disciplines and helping to counter the excessive specialization of the modern academic world." Mark A. Smith, University of Washington

"Critical Review has articles of unusual range and richness. It is a must for idea-hungry political scientists." David Mayhew, Yale University

"An excellent publication." Anthony Giddens, London School of Economics

"Interesting and controversial." Robert E. Lane, Yale University

"I read Critical Review regularly. I find it one of the more interesting journals these days because it is scholarly, quirky, and unpredictable." Daniel Bell, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

"Critical Review is the best-edited journal in political science, bar none." Martin Shefter, Cornell University

Critical Review