what is political theory

what is political theory, THE POLITICAL THEORY is the study of politics, concepts, and the historical record of political thought. Our Theory program is distinguished by the strengths of faculty and students in grounding critical and interpretive studies of present day politics in the history of political thought

Political theory is the study of current and ideal types of government, and how the ideas, priorities, values, and system of power of that government relate to its people. The two major types of political theory are normative and empirical

:political theory is ‘a sub-field of political scienceIt includes

i) political philosophy-a moral theory of politics and a historical study of political ideas

ii) a scientific criterion

iii) a linguistic analysis of political ideas iv) the discovery and systematic development of generalizations about political behaviour

we can sum up that political theory is concerned with the study of the phenomena of the state both in philosophical as well as empirical terms

It not only involves explanation, description and prescription regarding the state and political institutions but also evaluation of their moral philosophical purpose. It is not only concerned with what the state is but also what it ought to be

According to Weinstein, political theory can be viewed as an activity which involves posing questions, developing responses to those questions and creating imaginative perspectives on the public life of human beings

It is not necessary that political theory can provide answers to all questions but it can at least tell us how one should go about the solution