Political Theory: Methods and Approaches

Political Theory: Methods and Approaches is one of the first books to analyze research methods in political theory and political philosophy. Drawing together essays by a distinguished set of contributors, this rich and varied collection introduces students to many of the often unelaborated methods and approaches that currently inform the work of leading scholars in the field. The selections consider how political theory should be conducted today and also examine the complex and contested connections between political theory and a range of adjacent disciplines-moral philosophy, the empirical social sciences, the history of political thought, the world of "real" politics, critical social theory, and ideology. Both individually and as a collection, these essays will promote understanding and provoke further debate amongst students and established scholars alike.

Marc Stears is University Lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, and Fellow in Politics at University College, Oxford. He is the author of Progressives, Pluralists and the Problems of the State (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2002), and of numerous articles in political theory, the history of political thought, and American political development. He is currently completing a book on radical democratic theory in the twentieth century United States entitled, Democracy's Demands: Deliberation, Agonism and the
American Radical Tradition.
David Leopold teaches political theory in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, and is a Fixed-Term Fellow in Politics at Mansfield College, Oxford. His recent publications include: The Young Karl Marx. German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human
Flourishing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); 'The State and I: Max Stirner's Anarchism', in Douglas Moggach (edited), The New Hegelians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp.176-199; and 'The Structure of Marx and Engels' Considered Account of Utopian Socialism', History of
Political Thought, 26/3 (2005), pp.443-466. He is currently working on some issues raised by utopianism in both the history of political thought and contemporary political theory.