It was established in 1980 and is published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the International Political Science Association.

[1] Editors' choice collections of articles on a particular theme, selected from past issues, were initiated in 2011.

The prize was first awarded in 2012 and went to Jorgen Moller and Svend-Erik Skaaning, for "Beyond the radial delusion: Conceptualising and measuring democracy and non-democracy".

The next award will be made at the International Political Science Association's World Congress in Seoul in 2025.

The most cited paper published in the journal since the beginning of 2002, cited over 900 times according to Google Scholar, is: The journal is abstracted and indexed in Scopus and the Social Sciences Citation Index.