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 Writing Political Theory: Lessons from an Apprenticeship

Nicholas Tampio,  Johns Hopkins University 

I n 2003–2004 I served as the assistanteditor of   Political Theory. During my

term I reviewed hundreds of manuscripts,read scores of outside reviews, and com-municated regularly with Stephen White~the editor! about the criteria of a suc-cessful manuscript and the direction of thediscipline. To aid graduate students look-ing to publish, as well as others, I offerseveral principles to facilitate writing andsubmitting a political theory essay.

Devote care to the cover letter 

A cover letter is the first thing that aneditor reads when he or she opens yourenvelope. Too many authors write, ineffect, “Here is my submission. Tell mewhat you think.” A better strategy is to statewho you are and why the journal oughtto publish your essay. The main questionan editor asks when reading a manu-script is: Does this essay say somethingnew about an interesting topic? Use thecover letter to answer this question~briefly!. Mention the academic debatesyou are entering. Refer to recent essays in

this or other pertinent journals on thetopic. Explain the stakes of your essay. Agood cover letter piques the editor’scuriosity.

Craft the abstract 

The second thing an editor reads isyour abstract.An abstract outlines the argu-ment of your essay. It describes, in about150 words, the question you areaddressing, how other scholars approachit, your plan to answer it, and posits theoriginality and importance of your answer.

This is a lot to accomplish in an abstract,which is why many authors opt not towrite one. This is a mistake. A goodabstract gives the editor a map of yourargument. A manuscript without an ab-stract produces additional work  ~and irri-tation!  for the editor.

Specify the problem(s) immediately 

When reading a manuscript, an editorwonders about the audience for the essay.Experts on the topic already have theirthoughts, and others have not yet given thetopic close attention. Most potential read-ers, in other words, need a compelling rea-son to devote their time and energy to youressay. An author helps the editor by eluci-dating, in the opening pages, whypoliticaltheorists ought to read the essay. What po-litical problems does your essay address?

What intellectual problems? Does youressay shed light on terrorism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, globalization, affirma-tive action, technology, environmentalpolitics, or secularism? Does your essayhelp us understand a canonical politicalphilosopher ~e.g., Plato or Machiavelli!, acontemporary political theorist ~e.g., JudithButler or Ernesto Laclau!, an ongoing theo-retical debate ~e.g., between liberals, com-munitarians, and postmodernists!, o r anascent theoretical movement ~e.g., East-ern European democratic theory!? Doesyour essay clarify the meaning and history

of an important but elusive concept, e.g.,power or freedom?A political theory essayshould begin like a detective novel, with anevent or a puzzle that captures the reader’sattention.

Demonstrate mastery of the topic and the secondary literature 

Up to now, we have considered princi-ples to impress the editor and the gen-eral audience of the journal. The next setof readers for which to account is theoutside reviewers of your manuscript

~assuming the editor likes your essayenough to send it out!. Outside reviewersare traditionally selected because ~1!they are experts on your topic and ~2! theydisagree with you. How does one winover outside reviewers? The key is to look at one’s topic from a variety of perspec-tives, something that can only be done byreading deeply and widely in the field.

Say, for example, one writes on the work of John Rawls ~the most popular topicduring my tenure at Political Theory!.Rawls published five major books: ATheory of Justice ~1971, 1999!, Political

 Liberalism ~1993!, Collected Papers~1999!, Lectures on the History of MoralPhilosophy ~2000!, and Justice as Fair-ness: A Restatement ~2001!. Rawls alsoinspired hundreds of critiques, includ-ing Michael Sandel’s Liberalism and the

 Limits of Justice ~1982, 1998!, BonnieHonig’s Political Theory and the Dis-

 placement of Politics ~1993!, and AllanBloom’s Giants and Dwarfs ~1990!. Toadvance a novel, significant, and accurateargument about Rawls today, one needsa profound understanding of his entire cor-pus and the literature surrounding it. If 

one accuses Rawls of having a metaphysi-cal conception of the person in A Theoryof Justice, Rawlsians may observe thathe revised his conception of the person inPolitical Liberalism. If one censures San-del for ignoring Rawls’s late works, a civicrepublican may respond that Sandel ana-lyzes Political Liberalismin the sec-ond edition of  Liberalism and the Limitsof Justice. The point is: the most commonreasons a reviewer recommends declin-ing a manuscript are that the authoradvances an inaccurate or simplistic argu-ment or rehashes a familiar argument.

End strong 

Most reviewers know, before the finalpages, whether or not they are goingto recommend publication. A strong fin-ish, however, buttresses your case. Mostgood political theory essays address a nar-row topic with broad implications. In theconclusion of your essay, speculate howwe may think differently—about an au-thor, a concept, current events, the historyof political philosophy, the nature of polit-ical theory, politics in general, etc.—

after reading your essay.

Edit 

Before you submit your essay, check that every paragraph has a topic sentence,that there are no misspelled words orgrammatical mistakes, that each subsec-tion is marked and has a heading, and thatthe essay conforms to the page limit of the journal. Reviewers do not necessarilyadmire a well-written and edited essay,but they always resent a poorly composedone.

Nicholas Tampio   defended his disserta-tion on  The Kantian Problematic in Contem-porary Political Theory   at Johns HopkinsUniversity in September 2004.

PSOnline  www.apsanet.org   391

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Explain changes if resubmitting 

If the editor tells you to revise andresubmit, do so. Be sure, however, to listyour changes in an accompanying let-ter. At all stages of the process, remainin the editor’s good graces. Detailingyour revisions helps the editor determinewhether you have adequately addressedthe reviewers’ criticisms or concerns.

Study, rebel, create 

The best general advice about writingpolitical theory, I think, comes from thesection of  Thus Spoke Zarathustra  enti-tled, “On the Three Metamorphoses.” Inthis passage, Zarathustra  ~or Nietzsche!advises his charges to proceed throughthree stages of enlightenment. First, be-come a camel, i.e., someone who carriesthe weight of inherited values and tradi-

tions. Then, transmogrify into a lion, i.e.,someone who resists established ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. Finally, be-come a child, i.e., someone who sees theworld through fresh eyes. Stated moreprosaically: young political theorists oughtto ~1! master the primary and secondaryliterature on a political or theoretical issue,~2! challenge the orthodoxy on that issue,and ~3! invent new ideas and arguments.

Note*For comments on earlier drafts, I thank 

James Morone, Patricia Nordeen, Jesse Tampio,and Stephen White.

392   PS  July 2005