I'm not sure how much of this applies to poli sci journals. I know most of them barely break even, though I suppose the publishers might be making money from this. While it might cost a fortune to access an article by yourself, I don't know anyone who doesn't do this through some institution (which makes it free). There's something to be said for allowing the regular public access to the articles, but I'm not sure how many people would actually take up that offer and whether it should be the job of publishers to provide this information for free. Surely, if there was a public interest in having these information available to the public, the government can offer to pay the publishers for this access? Publishers aren't exactly in the business of giving out things for free.