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Late but not least? Spanish political science’s struggle for internationalisation in the twenty-first century

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Abstract

Having experienced a late institutionalisation as an academic discipline in the 1990s, during this century the political science community in Spain has struggled to converge with other fully established counterparts in Western Europe. In this article, we analyse and evaluate how successful these efforts have been concerning internationalisation. The article sheds light on the factors that explain this development. Using data from PhD dissertations defended since 1990 and articles published on SSCI journals since 1985, we demonstrate that the institutional reforms affecting higher education in Spain during the early 2000s, and the austerity measures introduced in the first part of the 2010s to address the economic crisis, together with the evolution of the particular ecology of the discipline, introduced greater competition into the Spanish political science academic market. This, in turn, triggered internationalisation of political scientists in Spain, particularly among the younger cohorts.

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Fig. 1

Source: Own elaboration using data from the Web of Science database (http://wos.fecyt.es)

Fig. 2

Source: Own elaboration using data from the Teseo database (https://www.educacion.gob.es/teseo)

Fig. 3

Note: Centres with 20 or more authorships in the whole period. The point marks refer to the total number of authorships by university in the corresponding period/cohort (left axis). The columns refer to the percentage of authorships by period/cohort (right axis). The figures in parentheses represent the total authorships by university.

Fig. 4

Source: Own elaboration using data from the Web of Science database (http://wos.fecyt.es)

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Notes

  1. An outstanding exception was the programme of the Centre for Advanced Social Research (CEACS) of the Juan March Foundation (Mény, 2010).

  2. The reform of the university system started with the passing of the Organic Law 6/2001 of Universities (LOU), but it gained a decisive thrust in 2007 with the reform of the LOU and the Royal Decree 1393/2007, that established the organisation current higher education system.

  3. Ministry of Universities (http://estadisticas.mecd.gob.es/EducaDynPx/educabase/index.htm?type=pcaxis&path=/Universitaria/Alumnado/Nueva_Estructura/Serie/GradoCiclo/&file=pcaxis). Last available data: 2018–19 (undergraduates) and 2017–18 (graduate students).

  4. Data obtained from the Official Bulletin of the UCM (https://bouc.ucm.es/index.php, accessed 13/12/2020).

  5. Data from Eurostat (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tsc00003/default/table?lang=en, accessed 13 December 2020).

  6. However, they are still frequent for tenured positions, at least in public universities. This is because these positions are usually created by universities each time an individual researcher gets the corresponding accreditation for tenured positions (associate professor and full professor) from the ANECA. Therefore, this accreditation-new position practically eliminates competition for tenured positions.

  7. The ‘European doctor’ mention was introduced in 2007 and changed in 2011 into ‘International doctor’ mention. The latter could be awarded to those PhD dissertations that comply with the following requirements: a) had been (at least partially) written and defended in a foreign language, b) the PhD candidate had spent at least three months during the period as graduate student in a foreign university or research centre; c) the dissertation obtained a favourable report from two researchers based at foreign academic institutions; and d) one of the members of the doctoral commission belonged to a foreign academic centre. In the European doctor mention, the foreign institutions and researchers should belong to EU countries.

  8. This has been obtained from the abstract and keywords in the corresponding TESEO record.

  9. In our operationalisation (based on a search in the ‘abstract’ field of the terms ‘Spain’ and ‘Spanish’), articles focusing on Spain can also include comparison with other countries.

  10. The total number of authorships considered is 1219. We have excluded authorships from individuals with no PhD by 2020, non-political scientists and political scientists based at foreign institutions.

  11. The relationship is statistically significant (Chi-square test) at p < 0.08.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales Y Jurídicas, Universidad de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, CP: 23071, Jaén, Spain

    Manuela Ortega-Ruiz

  2. University of Almería, Carretera de Sacramento s/n , 04120, Almería, Spain

    José Real-Dato

  3. University of Granada, Facultad CCPP y Sociología, C/ Rector López Argüeta, s/n, C.P. 18071, Granada, Spain

    Miguel Jerez Mir

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  1. Manuela Ortega-Ruiz
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  2. José Real-Dato
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  3. Miguel Jerez Mir
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Correspondence to Manuela Ortega-Ruiz.

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Ortega-Ruiz, M., Real-Dato, J. & Jerez Mir, M. Late but not least? Spanish political science’s struggle for internationalisation in the twenty-first century. Eur Polit Sci 20, 159–182 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-021-00315-z

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