Political Theory: Methods and Approaches

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.