The Political Theory Standing Group aims to reflect on the role, methods and contribution of political theory in political science. The complexity of contemporary political phenomena, at the national, supranational and international levels, increasingly encourages a return to theoretical models and approaches capable of classifying, understanding, explaining and describing an era of profound transformations. In other words, it proposes once again the centrality of concepts and their construction. Furthermore, the historical orientation of the field of political theory promotes an understanding of how abstractions, questions and problems have developed over time.

The contribution of political theory to political science thus appears to be an essential field, both for its intrinsic heuristic power and for the possibility of fostering fruitful encounters between models and ‘conceptualisations’ of politics, on the one hand, and empirical approaches and qualitative and quantitative methodologies, on the other.

The Standing Group encourages discussions that highlight the critical role of political theory in political science, with particular attention to:
– the key concepts of political theory (‘politics’, ‘power’, ‘representation’, ‘legitimacy’, ‘democracy’, etc.)
– the historical reconstruction and genealogy of particular concepts or theories;
– the ‘macro-political’ theoretical models;
– the methods of concept construction;
– the relations between empirically oriented political theory and the traditions of political thought and political philosophy;
– the relationship between political theory and research methods;
– the relevance of the ‘classics’ of political thought (ancient, modern and contemporary) for political science research;
– Empirically-oriented areas and issues. E.g. technocracy, populism, crisis of democracy.