Political Theory

Oxford Handbooks of Political Science are the essential guide to the state of political science today. With engaging contributions from 51 major international scholars, the Oxford Handbook of Political Theory provides the key point of reference for anyone working in political theory and beyond.

This cutting-edge text offers an introduction to the emerging field of media archaeology and analyses the innovative theoretical and artistic methodology used to excavate current media through its past. Written with a steampunk attitude, What is Media Archaeology? examines the theoretical challenges of studying digital culture and memory and opens up the sedimented layers of contemporary media culture. The author contextualizes media archaeology in relation to other key media studies debates including software studies, German media theory, imaginary media research, new materialism and digital humanities. What is Media Archaeology? advances an innovative theoretical position while also presenting an engaging and accessible overview for students of media, film and cultural studies. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the interdisciplinary ties between art, technology and media.

Political Theory: Methods and Approaches is one of the first books to analyze research methods in political theory and political philosophy. Drawing together a distinguished set of contributors, the book asks how political theory should be conducted today and examines the connections between political theory and a range of adjacent disciplines - including moral philosophy, the empirical social sciences, the history of political thought, the world of 'real' politics, critical social theory, and ideology.

Political theorists focus on the nature of justice, liberty, and equality while ignoring the institutions through which these ideals are achieved. Political scientists keep institutions in view but deploy a meager set of value-conceptions in analyzing them. A more political political theory is needed to address this gap, Jeremy Waldron argues.

What Is Political Theory? provides students with a comprehensive overview of the current state of the discipline. Eleven substantive chapters address the most pressing topics in political theory today, including: - what resources do the classic texts still provide for political theorists? - what areas will political theorists focus on in the future? - can western political theory alone continue to provide a framework for responding to the challenges of modern political life? The authors assess the intellectual challenges to conventional political theory, such as post-structuralism and the scientific study of politics, that have revitalized the field in the last 30 years. They also broaden the perspective to take in non-western ideas and to reconceptualize political theory in the light of specifically global challenges. Students and teachers of political theory and political philosophy will find this book invaluable in understanding the factors that have shaped current political theory and which will guide its future development.

Containing state-of-the-art reviews of political theories, past and present, this edited collection offers a complete guide to all the main areas and fields of political and philosophical enquiry.

How can we best understand the major debates and recent movements in contemporary empirical political theory? In this volume, the contributors, including four past presidents of the APSA and one past president of the IPSA, present their views of the central core, methodologies and development of empirical political science. Their disparate views of the unifying themes of the discipline reflect different theoretical orientations, from behavioralism to rational choice, cultural theory to postmodernism, and feminism to Marxism. Is there a human nature on which we can construct scientific theories of political life? What is the role of culture in shaping any such nature? How objective and value-free can political theories be? These are only a few of the issues the volume addresses. By assessing where we have traveled intellectually as a discipline and asking what remains of lasting significance in the various theoretical approaches that have engulfed the profession, Contemporary Empirical Political Theory provides an important evaluation of the current state of empirical political theory and a valuable guide to future developments in political science. CONTRIBUTORS: Gabriel Almond, David Easton, Murray Edelman, J. Peter Euben, Bernard Grofman, John Gunnell, Russell Hardin, Edward Harpham, Nancy Hartsock, Jean Laponce, Theodore Lowi, Kristen Monroe, William Riker, Ian Shapiro, Alexander Wendt, Catherine Zuckert, Michael Zuckert This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.

First published in 1956, Political Theory explores the historical development of political ideas and analyses some basic concepts of contemporary political theory, including the notions of the State, of Sovereignty and the Law. The book is based on lectures in Political Theory given by the author, G. C. Field, in the universities at which he taught. It opens by considering the development of political ideas by providing an overview of the ideas current at the time of original publication in comparison to the ideas of earlier ages. It then progresses into a more detailed discussion of specific political theories. It will appeal to those with an interest in the history of political thought and developments in political theory.