Q.In what ways is the study of political theory useful for us? Identify four ways in which political theory can be useful to us?

Even though most people will never become professional politicians, bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, political theory teachers, or rights activists, political theory is still genuinely useful to every citizen, for four connected reasons. First, since any student might end up in one of these roles eventually, studying political theory now is indirectly useful to everyone -- much like studying basic mathematics is useful long before (or even if) someone becomes an engineer, simply because the underlying skills are broadly applicable to life. Second, everyone eventually becomes a citizen entitled to vote and to weigh in on public issues, and acting responsibly as a citizen requires at least a basic grasp of the political ideas and institutions that shape the world; in an information-saturated age, informed and reasonable citizens -- whether speaking up in a gram sabha or online -- carry far more weight than those voicing arbitrary opinions, and a genuinely knowledgeable, vigilant citizenry pushes those who exercise power to be more accountable and public-spirited, in the same way a knowledgeable concert audience draws a better performance from musicians. Third, discrimination based on caste, religion, gender or class is something we encounter daily, not an abstract issue, and political theory trains us to examine our own assumptions and prejudices about fairness carefu …