Topic · Political Science and International Relations

Political Philosophy and Ethics

Political Philosophy and Ethics is a research topic within Political Science and International Relations. Science Explorer counts 28k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores theoretical perspectives on global justice, including discussions on human rights, cosmopolitanism, equality, distributive justice, democratic theory, Rawlsian justice, multiculturalism, social responsibility, and international law.

Global Justice
Human Rights
Cosmopolitanism
Equality
Distributive Justice
Democratic Theory
Rawlsian Justice
Multiculturalism
Social Responsibility
International Law

Research works: 28k
In the world top 10%: 2.8k
Top-10% rate: 10.0%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25: +0%
Largest producer: United States

Political Philosophy and Ethics

Which countries lead Political Philosophy and Ethics research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (1.4k and 618 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

1 United States 1.4k works
2 United Kingdom 618 works
3 Germany 309 works
4 Canada 192 works
5 Italy 188 works
6 Brazil 167 works
7 China 133 works
8 Australia 131 works
9 Netherlands 125 works
10 Spain 98 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States1,391 · 41.5%United Kingdom618 · 18.4%Germany309 · 9.2%Canada192 · 5.7%6 others listed842 · 25.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Political Philosophy and Ethics research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Oxford publishes the most Political Philosophy and Ethics research, followed by London School of Economics and Political Science and University of Cambridge.

By volume, 2022-now

1 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 63 works
2 London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom 41 works
3 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 39 works
4 Aarhus UniversityDenmark 34 works
5 University of Notre DameUnited States 30 works
6 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 30 works
7 University of WarwickUnited Kingdom 29 works
8 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 29 works
9 University of TorontoCanada 27 works
10 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 26 works

Who are the leading researchers in Political Philosophy and Ethics?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Political Philosophy and Ethics include Richard M. Ryan, Michel Foucault and Roy Frederick Baumeister.

1 Richard M. Ryan United States 395k citations
2 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
3 Roy Frederick Baumeister United States 183k citations
4 Daron Acemoğlu United States 164k citations
5 Элинор Остром United States 149k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Political Philosophy and Ethics?

The most cited paper in Political Philosophy and Ethics is "Inequity In Social Exchange" (J. Stacy Adams, 1965), with 10,688 citations. Next come "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy" (7,088) and "The Tragedy of the Commons*" (6,410).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	Inequity In Social Exchange J. Stacy Adams · Advances in experimental social psychology Book chapterOpen access	1965	10,688
2	Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy Seymour Martin Lipset · American Political Science Review	Mar 1959	7,088
3	The Tragedy of the Commons* Garrett Hardin · Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research Open access	Jul 2009	6,410
4	The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy. James Edward Meade, J. M. Buchanan, Gordon Tullock · The Economic Journal	Mar 1963	3,471
5	Equity, Equality, and Need: What Determines Which Value Will Be Used as the Basis of Distributive Justice? Morton Deutsch · Journal of Social Issues	Jul 1975	2,784

All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Political Philosophy and Ethics research done?

The largest centres of Political Philosophy and Ethics research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Oxford (United Kingdom) and Rome (Italy). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Notre Dame, York and Coventry.

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 LondonUnited Kingdom 142 works
2 New YorkUnited States 90 works
3 OxfordUnited Kingdom 69 works
4 RomeItaly 56 works
5 Washington D.C.United States 45 works
6 TorontoCanada 44 works
7 ParisFrance 43 works
8 MunichGermany 42 works
9 TokyoJapan 40 works
10 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 40 works

Where it is the local speciality

Notre DameUS · 30.8 works21×
YorkGB · 21.0 works11×
CoventryGB · 30.6 works11×

← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Political Philosophy and Ethics than the world average.

See Political Philosophy and Ethics on the map

Where is the best place to study Political Philosophy and Ethics?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Groningen, University of Johannesburg and Aarhus University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged

40%

Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share

10%

Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale

30%

Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%

10%

Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad

10%

Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.

#	University	Score	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	University of GroningenNetherlands	73.8	37.2%	6.5×	18	+86.3%
2	University of JohannesburgSouth Africa	70.9	32.4%	5.7×	14	+47.6%
3	Aarhus UniversityDenmark	68.1	21.5%	9.5×	34	+14.2%
4	University of OxfordUnited Kingdom	67.5	14.0%	11.0×	63	-27.8%
5	Stockholm UniversitySweden	63.5	23.8%	13.4×	19	+51.6%
6	University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom	63.3	15.3%	7.9×	38	+10.3%
7	University of WarwickUnited Kingdom	61.8	13.0%	15.6×	29	+60.6%
8	University of California San DiegoUnited States	58.8	20.9%	3.9×	16	+101.9%
9	University of California, BerkeleyUnited States	58.4	31.4%	3.4×	13	+28.5%
10	University of BristolUnited Kingdom	56.9	23.2%	7.5×	17	+34.3%
11	University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom	56.7	21.6%	7.2×	19	+32.5%
12	University of OsloNorway	56.5	19.2%	6.7×	18	+18.3%
13	University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom	55.1	17.1%	5.7×	20	+34.2%
14	Leiden UniversityNetherlands	54.9	34.4%	3.7×	8	+4.6%
15	University College LondonUnited Kingdom	54.2	14.8%	4.4×	29	+0.5%
16	University of Southern CaliforniaUnited States	54.0	22.5%	4.3×	15	+58.6%
17	Princeton UniversityUnited States	53.1	17.5%	9.2×	17	-5.0%
18	University of ViennaAustria	53.0	15.2%	8.9×	18	+85.7%
19	University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom	52.9	19.3%	5.7×	20	+1.0%
20	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany	52.4	9.4%	7.5×	26	+118.0%
21	Utrecht UniversityNetherlands	51.8	24.3%	5.7×	17	-41.7%
22	London School of Economics and Political ScienceUnited Kingdom	51.7	6.6%	42.8×	41	-16.1%
23	New York UniversityUnited States	50.5	8.0%	5.2×	24	+48.1%
24	TU Dortmund UniversityGermany	50.5	25.0%	9.1×	10	+131.9%
25	University of YorkUnited Kingdom	50.1	14.8%	15.2×	21	+6.2%
26	King's College LondonUnited Kingdom	49.4	14.8%	7.4×	26	-25.2%
27	Lund UniversitySweden	48.5	24.4%	3.9×	9	+56.1%
28	University of Notre DameUnited States	48.0	3.3%	24.9×	30	+68.9%
29	Hebrew University of JerusalemIsrael	47.5	7.7%	8.9×	19	+15.5%
30	Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamNetherlands	47.5	18.9%	8.9×	15	+0.4%
31	Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom	47.1	13.8%	9.8×	15	+19.7%
32	Goethe University FrankfurtGermany	47.0	11.0%	9.8×	18	-11.9%
33	University of NottinghamUnited Kingdom	46.9	22.4%	4.3×	13	+6.0%
34	Cornell UniversityUnited States	46.6	10.9%	3.7×	20	+183.6%
35	University of ZurichSwitzerland	46.4	10.5%	5.4×	16	+15.9%
36	University of HelsinkiFinland	46.2	8.6%	6.5×	19	+9.6%
37	University of AmsterdamNetherlands	45.8	25.6%	5.4×	13	-43.2%
38	European University InstituteItaly	45.6	18.1%	30.4×	9	-5.4%
39	University of SouthamptonUnited Kingdom	45.1	12.8%	6.8×	14	-8.1%
40	Australian National UniversityAustralia	44.9	14.6%	7.4×	16	-31.8%
41	University of CopenhagenDenmark	44.6	4.9%	4.5×	17	+50.3%
42	Central European UniversityAustria	44.2	14.2%	54.3×	11	+114.6%
43	York UniversityCanada	43.8	12.5%	10.1×	15	+20.8%
44	Tilburg UniversityNetherlands	42.1	8.9%	15.5×	10	+112.5%
45	Sapienza University of RomeItaly	41.8	1.5%	6.3×	30	+1397.2%
46	Emory UniversityUnited States	40.5	32.9%	2.7×	9	+3.9%
47	University of TorontoCanada	39.6	7.4%	3.2×	27	-25.5%
48	KU LeuvenBelgium	38.7	17.4%	3.8×	15	-33.7%
49	Loyola University New OrleansUnited States	32.7	0.5%	86.0×	9	+30.5%
50	University of Hong KongChina	27.3	8.6%	2.2×	8	-15.0%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Political Philosophy and Ethics, country by country

Is Political Philosophy and Ethics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 0% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Political Philosophy and Ethics.

grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Political Philosophy and Ethics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.020% in 2024.

Fractional works of Political Philosophy and Ethics over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

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Which countries lead Political Philosophy and Ethics research?

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Political Philosophy and Ethics research?

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Political Philosophy and Ethics?

What are the most cited papers in Political Philosophy and Ethics?

Where is Political Philosophy and Ethics research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where it is the local speciality

Where is the best place to study Political Philosophy and Ethics?

Is Political Philosophy and Ethics research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

Related research

Discussion