Call for Abstracts
Political Thought in Central Europe: Traditions, Transfers, and Legacies
Politics in Central Europe, the journal of the Central European Political Science Association, invites submissions of manuscripts for a special issue on traditions, transfers and legacies of political thought in Central Europe. The Special Issue is guest edited by Petr Bláha (Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem) and Jan Květina (Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences & University of Hradec Králové).
Central Europe has long constituted an important and contested space of political reflection. Its political thought has been shaped by imperial legacies and their dissolution, competing national projects, democratic and authoritarian experiments, fascism and communism, dissidence and exile, as well as the political and intellectual transformations following 1989. At the same time, political thought produced in the region has often been approached primarily through separate national intellectual histories or incorporated into broader narratives of European political thought in which Central Europe itself remains analytically marginal.
This Special Issue seeks to examine Central Europe as a space of political thought. Rather than assuming the existence of a single coherent Central European intellectual tradition, it asks whether distinctive traditions, problems, and modes of political thinking can be identified in the region and how political ideas have travelled across its national, linguistic, ideological, and disciplinary boundaries. We thus aim to move beyond both nationally bounded histories of political thought and narratives that treat Central Europe primarily as a recipient of intellectual developments originating elsewhere.
The Special Issue is particularly interested in the production, circulation, reception, and transformation of political ideas in Central Europe, and in the relationship between political thought and the region’s specific historical experiences. In doing so, it seeks answers to (inter alia) the following questions. How have Central European thinkers conceptualised democracy, nationhood, statehood, freedom, sovereignty, Europe, revolution, socialism, conservatism, liberalism, populism, or civil society? How have imperial legacies, regime changes, war, exile, dissent, and intellectual networks shaped political reflection? How have ideas originating elsewhere been translated, adapted, and transformed in Central European contexts? Conversely, how have political concepts and intellectual traditions originating in Central Europe travelled beyond the region? And to what extent do these intellectual legacies continue to shape contemporary political debates?
We welcome articles focusing on individual thinkers as well as comparative, conceptual, transnational, and intellectual-historical studies. Contributions may address political thought from the early modern period to the present, provided that they explicitly contribute to a broader understanding of political thought in Central Europe.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- the existence and character of distinctive Central European traditions of political thought;
- transfers, circulation, translation, and reception of political ideas across Central Europe;
- political thought in the Habsburg and post-Habsburg space;
- competing concepts of Central Europe and the political meaning of the region itself;
- nation, nationalism, federalism, regionalism, and statehood;
- Central European liberalism, conservatism, socialism, Christian democracy, and other ideological traditions;
- democracy, authoritarianism, revolution, political resistance, and political legitimacy;
- Marxism, revisionism, reform communism, and post-Marxist political thought;
- dissident political thought, anti-politics, civil society, and parallel structures;
- exile, migration, translation, and transnational intellectual networks;
- political thought under conditions of occupation, dictatorship, and regime transformation;
- the relationship between political thought and philosophy, sociology, history, literature, and neighbouring disciplines;
- neglected or marginalised thinkers, intellectual traditions, and perspectives, including those of women and minority intellectuals;
- the reception and transformation of internationally influential political theories in Central European contexts;
- continuities and ruptures between pre-1989 and post-1989 political thought;
- contemporary uses, reinterpretations, and appropriations of Central European thinkers and intellectual traditions;
- methodological approaches to studying political thought beyond nationally bounded intellectual histories.
We particularly encourage comparative and transnational contributions that cross national, linguistic, or disciplinary boundaries. Papers centred on individual thinkers are also welcome, particularly where the analysis uses the specific case to address broader questions concerning political concepts, ideological traditions, intellectual transfers, or the historical and political experience of Central Europe.
The geographical understanding of Central Europe employed in this Special Issue is deliberately open. The Czech lands, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary constitute an important core, but contributions examining Austria and other historically, politically, or intellectually connected parts of Central Europe are equally welcome where they illuminate regional patterns, shared intellectual problems, or transnational exchanges.
Submission Procedure
Prospective authors are invited to submit an abstract of 150–200 words to the editors (pce@mup.cz) by 30 November 2026. Abstracts should clearly specify the proposed article’s research question, theoretical or conceptual approach, sources or material, and principal argument. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit their manuscripts no later than late December 2026. Selection of an abstract does not constitute acceptance of the eventual article. All full manuscripts will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review procedure. The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 31 August 2027. The special issue is planned to be published in March 2028 (vol. 24, iss. 1). Before submitting the final manuscript, please consult the guidelines for authors.
Timeline
Call for Abstracts announced: September 2026
Abstract submission deadline: 30 November 2026
Notification of abstract selection: 20 December 2026
Full manuscript submission: 31 August 2027
First-round peer-review decisions: 31 October 2027
Submission of revised manuscripts: 31 December 2027
Second-round peer-review decisions: 15 February 2028
Publication of the Special Issue: March 2028
To download the call for abstracts in PDF format, click here.