From ‘Democracy and Legitimacy’ to ‘The Contested Council’: An analysis of the 75 most-cited PSA articles

To mark the Political Studies Association’s (PSA) 75th anniversary, we identified the 75 most-cited articles—between 1 January 2003 and 1 August 2025 using Web of Science Core Citations—across our suite of journals. There is obviously far more to academic publishing than citations, which can never fully capture articles’ significance and impact. But the number of citations can help us track an article’s influence—and whose work has been influential. 

The PSA currently publishes four peer-reviewed journals: Political Studies (first published in 1953), Politics (1981), the British Journal of Politics and International Relations (1999), and Political Studies Review (2003). These journals are of huge importance to the PSA and are highly regarded across the discipline. They underpin our strategic goals by enabling us to promote and disseminate excellence in research and teaching across the wider political studies community —and, through our publication agreement with Sage, provide us with much-needed revenue that supports all our endeavours. 

The big picture

Our analysis of citation scores covers all articles that have been published since the launch of our fourth journal, Political Studies Review, in 2003. Across the 75-most cited articles, the total number of citations ranged from 834 for Viven Schmidt’s ‘Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited: Input, Output and “Throughput”’, to 123 cites for Christina Zimmer, Gerald Schneider and Michael Dobbins’s ‘The contested Council: Conflict dimensions of an intergovernmental EU institution’. 

Figure1 shows how the 75 articles were distributed across our journals. The overwhelming majority (57) were published in Political Studies, which is consistent with its status as the PSA’s oldest, flagship journal. Nine of the articles were published in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, five in Political Studies Review, and four in Politics.  

Not surprisingly, most of the 75 articles were published towards the beginning of our period, as shown in Figure 2. They have been to accumulate more citations. Over time, more recently published articles may well surpass them.

Areas of inquiry 

What have the most-cited articles tended to focus on? To answer this question, we sought to categorise each article by its disciplinary sub-field.  We did so by following and adapting the categories used by Matthew Flinders (2024) in his recent analysis of articles published in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. In addition to his categories, we added ‘Populism’, ‘Groups & Diversity’, ‘Celebrity Politics’ and ‘Asian Politics’.   

Categorising articles by disciplinary sub-field is problematic for all the reason Flinders identifies. Disciplinary boundaries are fluid, and others may disagree with coding decisions. The results should be handled with caution.  

Accepting these limitations, the three most prevalent sub-disciplines were ‘Elections, Public Opinion & Parties’, ‘Governance & Public Policy’ and ‘Political Theory & Philosophy’ (see Table 1).  Reflecting real-world developments, ‘Populism’ also featured heavily in the 75 most-cited articles.

One intriguing finding was the relatively small number of case-oriented articles on British politics. The UK featured in over a dozen articles across all sub-fields, but usually in the context of wider, comparative debates. The PSA’s journals are sometimes perceived as being UK focused, but their most-cited articles clearly speak to global debates and challenges. 

Who was cited? 

When it comes to authorship, the most prominent scholars in our 75 most-cited articles were Pippa Norris and Christoffer Green-Pedersen. Three of their articles appeared in the list.    

We also looked at authors’ gender and whether they were UK-based.  To code gender, we sought to ascertain the pronouns publicly used by all the authors associated with every article.  We then coded each article based on whether the authorship was all-female (regardless of how many authors were credited), all-male or mixed.  This last category applied only to co-authored work.  For geographic location, we used the institutional addresses associated with all authors at the time of an article’s publication. We coded each article based on whether the authors were all located in the UK, some were UK-based, or none. In this instance, the middle category applied only to co-authored work. 

Figure 3 shows the gender and geographic profile of authorship across the 75 articles. A large majority of the articles were authored or co-authored exclusively by men (47). Less than one-fifth of the articles (14) were authored or co-authored exclusively by women. These findings chime with the well-established over-representation of men across the discipline. 

Meanwhile, just under half of the 75 articles were authored or co-authored exclusively by UK-based scholars (35), but a comparable number were authored or co-authored exclusively by non-UK-based scholars (31)—and the remainder were written by teams with at least one non-UK author.  These findings highlight the international reach of the PSA’s journals and their global appeal as outlets of original research.

The next 75 years 

Publishing has always been one of the PSA’s core activities.  Our suite of journals has grown and evolved over recent decades—and it will almost certainly grow and evolve in the future. Our list of most-cited articles—which are available below—obviously reflects the traditions and reputations of our journals, but they also reflect recent disciplinary trends. In this respect, our journals will continue to champion diversity and inclusion—and promote excellence in research and scholarship.  

The success of any journal ultimately rests on the labour of authors—and especially editors.  Editing a journal is hard work.  It’s only right to conclude by expressing the PSA’s enormous thanks to all our editorial teams, past and present, for their amazing efforts over the last 75 years. 

You can find out more about our PSA journals here. 

* The 75 most-cited articles, 1 January 2003 – 1 August 2025 

1. Schmidt, Vivien A. (2013) Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited: Input, Output and ‘Throughput’. Political Studies 

2. Dalton, Russell J. (2008) Citizenship norms and the expansion of political participation. Political Studies 

3. Moffitt, Benjamin; Tormey, Simon (2014) Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatisation and Political Style. Political Studies 

4. Crouch, Colin (2009) Privatised Keynesianism: An Unacknowledged Policy Regime. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

5. Stolle, Dietlind, Soroka, Stuart; Johnston, Richard (2008) When does diversity erode trust? Neighborhood diversity, interpersonal trust and the mediating effect of social interactions. Political Studies 

6. Aslanidis, Paris (2016) Is Populism an Ideology? A Refutation and a New Perspective. Political Studies 

7. Jordan, A; Wurzel, RKW; Zito, A (2005) The rise of 'new' policy instruments in comparative perspective: Has governance eclipsed government? Political Studies 

8. Abts, Koen; Rummens, Stefan (2007) Populism versus democracy. Political Studies 

9. Letki, Natalia (2008) Does diversity erode social cohesion? Social capital and race in British neighbourhoods. Political Studies 

10. Bale, Tim; Green-Pedersen, Christoffer; Krouwel, Andre; Luther, Kurt Richard; Sitter, Nick (2010) If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them? Explaining Social Democratic Responses to the Challenge from the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe. Political Studies 

11. Devine, Daniel; Gaskell, Jennifer; Jennings, Will; Stoker, Gerry (2021) Trust and the Coronavirus Pandemic: What are the Consequences of and for Trust? An Early Review of the Literature. Political Studies Review 

12. Goodwin, Matthew; Milazzo, Caitlin (2017) Taking back control? Investigating the role of immigration in the 2016 vote for Brexit. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

13. Benson, David; Jordan, Andrew (2011) What Have We Learned from Policy Transfer Research? Dolowitz and Marsh Revisited. Political Studies Review 

14. Marien, Sofie; Hooghe, Marc; Quintelier, Ellen (2010) Inequalities in Non-institutionalised Forms of Political Participation: A Multi-level Analysis of 25 countries. Political Studies 

15. Dunlop, Claire A.; Radaelli, Claudio M. (2013) Systematising Policy Learning: From Monolith to Dimensions. Political Studies 

16. Green-Pedersen, Christoffer (2007) The growing importance of issue competition: The changing nature of party competition in Western Europe. Political Studies 

17. Heath-Kelly, Charlotte (2013) Counter-Terrorism and the Counterfactual: Producing the 'Radicalisation' Discourse and the UK PREVENT Strategy. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

18. Childs, Sarah; Krook, Mona Lena (2008) Critical mass theory and women's political representation. Political Studies 

19. McCann, Eugene; Ward, Kevin (2012) Policy Assemblages, Mobilities and Mutations: Toward a Multidisciplinary Conversation. Political Studies Review 

20. Citrin, Jack; Sides, John (2008) Immigration and the imagined community in Europe and the United States. Political Studies 

21. Ball, Stephen J. (2008) New Philanthropy, New Networks and New Governance in Education. Political Studies 

22. Gilabert, Pablo; Lawford-Smith, Holly (2012) Political Feasibility: A Conceptual Exploration. Political Studies 

23. Blais, Andre; Gelineau, Francois (2007) Winning, losing and satisfaction with democracy. Political Studies 

24. Parkinson, J (2003) Legitimacy problems in deliberative democracy. Political Studies 

25. Lovenduski, J; Norris, P (2003) Westminster women: The politics of presence. Political Studies 

26. McLaren, Lauren; Johnson, Mark (2007) Resources, group conflict and symbols: Explaining anti-immigration hostility in Britain. Political Studies 

27. Binderkrantz, A (2005) Interest group strategies: Navigating between privileged access and strategies of pressure. Political Studies 

28. Hendriks, Carolyn M. (2006) Integrated deliberation: Reconciling civil society's dual role in deliberative democracy. Political Studies 

29. Grayson, Kyle; Davies, Matt; Philpott, Simon (2009) Pop Goes IR? Researching the Popular Culture-World Politics Continuum. Politics 

30. Wilkinson, T. M. (2013) Nudging and Manipulation. Political Studies 

31. Andersson, Staffan; Heywood, Paul M. (2009) The Politics of Perception: Use and Abuse of Transparency International's Approach to Measuring Corruption. Political Studies 

32. Colomer, JM (2005) It's parties that choose electoral systems (or, Duverger's laws upside down). Political Studies 

33. Cairney, Paul (2012) Complexity Theory in Political Science and Public Policy. Political Studies Review 

34. Pratchett, L (2004) Local autonomy, local democracy and the 'new localism'. Political Studies 

35. Green, Jane (2007) When voters and parties agree: Valence issues and party competition. Political Studies 

36. Meer, Nasar; Modood, Tariq (2009) The Multicultural State We're In: Muslims, 'Multiculture' and the 'Civic Re-balancing' of British Multiculturalism. Political Studies 

37. Grix, Jonathan; Houlihan, Barrie (2014) Sports Mega-Events as Part of a Nation's Soft Power Strategy: The Cases of Germany (2006) and the UK (2012). British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

38. Pattie, C; Seyd, P; Whiteley, P (2003) Citizenship and civic engagement: Attitudes and behaviour in Britain. Political Studies 

39. Sanderson, Ian (2009) Intelligent Policy Making for a Complex World: Pragmatism, Evidence and Learning. Political Studies 

40. van der Heijden, Jeroen (2011) Institutional Layering: A Review of the Use of the Concept. Politics 

41. Farrelly, Colin (2007) Justice in ideal theory: A refutation. Political Studies 

42. van der Meer, Tom; Hakhverdian, Armen (2017) Political Trust as the Evaluation of Process and Performance: A Cross-National Study of 42 European Countries. Political Studies 

43. Finlayson, Alan (2009) Financialisation, Financial Literacy and Asset-Based Welfare. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

44. Campbell, Rosie; Cowley, Philip (2014) What Voters Want: Reactions to Candidate Characteristics in a Survey Experiment. Political Studies 

45. Norris, Pippa; Inglehart, Ronald F. (2012) Muslim Integration into Western Cultures: Between Origins and Destinations. Political Studies 

46. Hobolt, SB; Klemmensen, R (2005) Responsive government? Public opinion and government policy preferences in Britain and Denmark. Political Studies 

47. Mitchell, Paul; Evans, Geoffrey; O'Leary, Brendan (2009) Extremist Outbidding in Ethnic Party Systems is Not Inevitable: Tribune Parties in Northern Ireland. Political Studies 

48. Yablokov, Ilya (2015) Conspiracy Theories as a Russian Public Diplomacy Tool: The Case of Russia Today (RT). Politics 

49. Rooduijn, Matthijs (2014) The Mesmerising Message: The Diffusion of Populism in Public Debates in Western European Media. Political Studies 

50. Miller, David (2012) Territorial Rights: Concept and Justification. Political Studies 

51. March, Luke (2017) Left and right populism compared: The British case. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

52. Boswell, Christina; Geddes, Andrew; Scholten, Peter (2011) The Role of Narratives in Migration Policy-Making: A Research Framework. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

53. Henn, M; Weinstein, M; Forrest, S (2005) Uninterested youth? Young people's attitudes towards party politics in Britain. Political Studies 

54. Nasstrom, Sofia (2011) The Challenge of the All-Affected Principle. Political Studies 

55. Ford, Robert; Goodwin, Matthew J. (2010) Angry White Men: Individual and Contextual Predictors of Support for the British National Party. Political Studies 

56. Geurkink, Bram; Zaslove, Andrej; Sluiter, Roderick; Jacobs, Kristof (2020) Populist Attitudes, Political Trust, and External Political Efficacy: Old Wine in New Bottles? Political Studies 

57. Green-Pedersen, Christoffer (2012) A Giant Fast Asleep? Party Incentives and the Politicisation of European Integration. Political Studies 

58. Kennedy, John James (2009) Maintaining Popular Support for the Chinese Communist Party: The Influence of Education and the State-Controlled Media. Political Studies 

59. Marinetto, M (2003) Governing beyond the centre: A critique of the Anglo-governance school. Political Studies 

60. Levi, Margaret; Murphy, Gillian H. (2006) Coalitions of contention: The case of the WTO protests in Seattle. Political Studies 

61. Blinder, Scott (2015) Imagined Immigration: The Impact of Different Meanings of 'Immigrants' in Public Opinion and Policy Debates in Britain. Political Studies 

62. Coole, D (2005) Rethinking agency: A phenomenological approach to embodiment and agentic capacities. Political Studies 

63. Anderson, Ben (2015) What Kind of Thing is Resilience? Politics 

64. Dobson, A (2006) Thick cosmopolitanism. Political Studies 

65. Ramiro, Luis; Gomez, Raul (2017) Radical-Left Populism during the Great Recession: Podemos and Its Competition with the Established Radical Left. Political Studies 

66. Goodin, RE; Niemeyer, SJ (2003) When does deliberation begin? Internal reflection versus public discussion in deliberative democracy. Political Studies 

67. Marsh, David; 't Hart, Paul; Tindall, Karen (2010) Celebrity Politics: The Politics of the Late Modernity? Political Studies Review 

68. Durose, Catherine (2011) Revisiting Lipsky: Front-Line Work in UK Local Governance. Political Studies 

69. Norris, Pippa (2023) Cancel Culture: Myth or Reality? Political Studies 

70. Schmidt, Vivien A. (2014) Speaking to the Markets or to the People? A Discursive Institutionalist Analysis of the EU's Sovereign Debt Crisis. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

71. Rushton, Simon (2011) Global Health Security: Security for Whom? Security from What? Political Studies 

72. Dahlberg, Stefan; Linde, Jonas; Holmberg, Soren (2015) Democratic Discontent in Old and New Democracies: Assessing the Importance of Democratic Input and Governmental Output. Political Studies 

73. Street, John (2012) Do Celebrity Politics and Celebrity Politicians Matter? British Journal of Politics & International Relations 

74. White, Jonathan (2015) Emergency Europe. Political Studies 

75. Zimmer, C; Schneider, G; Dobbins, M (2005) The contested Council: Conflict dimensions of an intergovernmental EU institution. Political Studies