In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® -Politics 2016, universities must offer a course or the option to specialize in these disciplines, and meet the discipline specific threshold for papers published.
| 2016 | 2015 | Institution | Country | Academic | Employer | Citations | H | Score |
| 1 | 1 | Harvard University | United States | 91.8 | 100.0 | 94.2 | 96.7 | 95.0 |
| 2 | 3 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 89.2 | 98.6 | 90.1 | 99.2 | 93.1 |
| 3 | 4 | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 87.7 | 95.4 | 93.6 | 100.0 | 91.8 |
| 4 | 5 | Sciences Po Paris | France | 100.0 | 82.1 | 82.6 | 69.3 | 89.8 |
| 5 | 6 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 85.8 | 99.3 | 83.4 | 79.1 | 88.9 |
| 6 | 9 | Yale University | United States | 85.5 | 87.5 | 95.3 | 95.8 | 88.1 |
| 7 | 8 | Stanford University | United States | 84.6 | 92.3 | 90.1 | 89.8 | 88.0 |
| 8 | 7 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 87.7 | 88.0 | 84.6 | 86.3 | 87.3 |
| 9 | 2 | Princeton University | United States | 84.5 | 79.4 | 100.0 | 94.9 | 85.6 |
| 10 | 13 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 85.1 | 79.9 | 93.3 | 87.5 | 84.6 |
| 11 | 12 | Georgetown University | United States | 88.1 | 74.4 | 89.1 | 86.3 | 83.9 |
| 12 | 10= | Columbia University | United States | 82.5 | 83.1 | 84.6 | 83.6 | 83.0 |
| 13 | 14 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 78.9 | 87.7 | 80.0 | 75.6 | 81.3 |
| 14 | 17 | University of Chicago | United States | 79.3 | 78.9 | 91.7 | 83.6 | 80.9 |
| 15 | 22 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 75.0 | 83.1 | 89.7 | 82.2 | 79.6 |
| 16 | 10= | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 81.3 | 76.1 | 82.3 | 75.6 | 79.3 |
| 17 | 15 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 73.1 | 81.2 | 92.1 | 89.8 | 79.1 |
| 18 | 19= | Freie Universität Berlin | Germany | 84.1 | 65.3 | 88.3 | 83.6 | 78.8 |
| 19 | 18 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 76.2 | 89.9 | 72.4 | 64.3 | 78.7 |
| 20 | 16 | Cornell University | United States | 76.1 | 74.3 | 92.7 | 86.3 | 78.2 |
| 21= | 19= | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 66.2 | 91.3 | 89.2 | 80.7 | 77.5 |
| 21= | 21 | University of California, San Diego (UCSD) | United States | 83.0 | 59.5 | 97.9 | 83.6 | 77.5 |
| 23 | 26 | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 72.3 | 90.5 | 77.1 | 64.3 | 77.4 |
| 24 | 27 | University of Toronto | Canada | 74.7 | 76.0 | 89.3 | 82.2 | 77.3 |
| 25 | 23 | Leiden University | Netherlands | 78.7 | 67.9 | 88.5 | 85.0 | 77.1 |
| 26 | 25 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 69.9 | 83.6 | 85.2 | 79.1 | 76.5 |
| 27 | 24 | George Washington University | United States | 72.0 | 69.3 | 96.9 | 88.7 | 75.4 |
| 28 | 36= | King's College London (KCL) | United Kingdom | 70.7 | 77.6 | 82.6 | 83.6 | 75.3 |
| 29 | 32 | Peking University | China | 70.9 | 87.4 | 71.3 | 61.3 | 74.9 |
| 30= | 30 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 68.0 | 81.1 | 85.6 | 79.1 | 74.8 |
| 30= | 51-100 | University of Essex | United Kingdom | 76.9 | 63.2 | 90.3 | 83.6 | 74.8 |
| 32 | 33= | McGill University | Canada | 71.5 | 77.6 | 82.0 | 73.6 | 74.6 |
| 33 | 31 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 68.6 | 72.1 | 93.3 | 92.0 | 74.5 |
| 34 | 28 | University of Michigan | United States | 75.6 | 65.0 | 88.9 | 82.2 | 74.4 |
| 35 | 35 | SOAS - School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London | United Kingdom | 81.1 | 66.9 | 75.0 | 61.3 | 74.3 |
| 36 | 40= | Fudan University | China | 68.9 | 84.8 | 70.6 | 66.9 | 73.6 |
| 37 | 48= | University of British Columbia | Canada | 69.6 | 71.2 | 91.5 | 80.7 | 73.4 |
| 38 | 48= | Tsinghua University | China | 66.7 | 84.0 | 75.6 | 71.6 | 73.3 |
| 39 | 36= | Seoul National University (SNU) | South Korea | 69.3 | 85.4 | 69.8 | 58.0 | 73.1 |
| 40 | 29 | Central European University | Hungary | 73.2 | 73.3 | 74.1 | 69.3 | 72.9 |
| 41 | 42 | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Germany | 71.2 | 77.1 | 68.5 | 66.9 | 72.3 |
| 42 | 43 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 67.3 | 73.2 | 84.0 | 80.7 | 72.1 |
| 43 | 33= | Trinity College Dublin (TCD) | Ireland | 66.4 | 74.0 | 88.0 | 77.4 | 71.9 |
| 44 | 51-100 | European University Institute | Italy | 80.9 | 46.2 | 87.7 | 85.0 | 71.6 |
| 45 | 40= | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 61.4 | 84.0 | 81.2 | 73.6 | 71.4 |
| 46 | 39 | Duke University | United States | 66.5 | 69.0 | 90.1 | 83.6 | 71.3 |
| 47 | 45 | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 63.2 | 75.1 | 88.3 | 82.2 | 71.2 |
| 48 | 44 | Kyoto University | Japan | 73.5 | 80.4 | 51.6 | 50.0 | 71.0 |
| 49 | 51-100 | ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) | Switzerland | 60.3 | 75.0 | 91.8 | 85.0 | 70.3 |
| 50 | 46 | The University of Warwick | United Kingdom | 58.6 | 78.3 | 88.0 | 83.6 | 70.0 |
