Introduction

Human beings stand apart from other species in two crucial ways: they can reason, and they can reflect on their own actions. They also possess language, which lets them share their innermost thoughts with one another and openly discuss what they consider good and desirable. Political theory grows directly out of these two capacities. It asks the basic questions that follow naturally once people start reasoning together about how they should live collectively: How should society be organised? Why do we need a government at all? What is the best form that government can take? Does having laws limit our freedom, or protect it? What does the state owe its citizens, and what do citizens owe one another?

Political theory does not stop at asking these questions. It systematically studies the values that shape political life -- values such as freedom, equality and justice -- and works out what these values actually mean and why they matter. It does this by turning to the arguments of major political thinkers, past and present, to see how they have understood and defended these ideas. It also checks how far freedom or equality are genuinely present in the everyday institutions we take part in -- our schools, the shops and buses we use, or government offices. At a more advanced level, it asks whether our current definitions of these values are good enough, and how institutions like government and the bureaucracy, and the policies they follow, would need to change to become more genuinely democratic. In short, the purpose of political theory is to train citizens to think rationally about political questions and to be able to judge the political events of their own time with a clear head.

This chapter takes up two starting questions that the rest of the book builds on: what do we mean by politics, and why should we bother studying political theory at all?