List of political theorists
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A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars.
Notable historic political theorists
- Alexis de Tocqueville
- Aristotle
- Baruch Spinoza
- Benjamin Franklin
- Chanakya
- Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
- Cicero
- Edmund Burke
- Frederic Bastiat
- Frederick Engels
- Gustave de Molinari
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Hugo Grotius
- Immanuel Kant
- James Madison
- Jean Bodin
- Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Jeremy Bentham
- Johann Gottfried von Herder
- John Austin
- John C. Calhoun
- John Locke
- John Milton
- John of Salisbury
- John Stuart Mill
- Karl Marx
- Lysander Spooner
- Niccolò Machiavelli
- Plato
- Ryōhei Uchida
- Samuel Pufendorf
- Simion Bărnuțiu
- Thomas Hobbes
- Thomas More
- Thomas Paine
20th-century political theorists
- Alasdair MacIntyre
- Allama Iqbal
- Allan Bloom
- Alma Guillermoprieto
- Amy Gutmann
- Anne Norton
- Antonio Gramsci
- Antonio Negri
- Ayn Rand
- Beatrice Webb
- Benjamin Barber
- Bonnie Honig
- Bruce Ackerman
- Carl Friedrich
- Carl Schmitt
- Carole Pateman
- C. B. Macpherson
- Chandran Kukathas
- Chantal Mouffe
- Charles Taylor
- C.L.R. James
- Che Guevara
- Claude Lefort
- Clive Hamilton
- Cornelius Castoriadis
- David D. Friedman
- David Easton
- David Held
- David Miller
- Dobrica Ćosić (1921–2014), Yugoslav and Serbian
- Drucilla Cornell
- Dwight Macdonald
- Emma Goldman
- Eoin Ó Broin
- Erich Fromm
- Eric Voegelin
- Ernest Barker
- Ernesto Laclau
- Frantz Fanon
- Friedrich Hayek
- Gabriel Almond
- G. D. H. Cole
- Giorgio Agamben
- Graham Wallas
- Hanna Fenichel Pitkin
- Hannah Arendt
- Hans T. Blokland
- Harold D. Lasswell
- Harold J. Laski
- Harvey Mansfield
- Henri Lefebvre
- Herbert Marcuse
- Howard Zinn
- Iris Marion Young
- Isaiah Berlin
- James Burnham
- James C. Scott
- Jean Jaurès
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- J.G.A. Pocock
- John Dewey
- John Dunn
- John Plamenatz
- John Rawls
- Joseph Cropsey
- Joseph Raz
- Joseph Schumpeter
- Jouke de Vries
- Judith N. Shklar
- Jürgen Habermas
- Kim Il-Sung
- Leo Jogiches
- Leo Strauss
- Leon Trotsky
- Lorenzo Peña
- Louis Althusser
- Louis Hartz
- L. T. Hobhouse
- Mario Savio
- Martha Nussbaum
- Michael Hardt
- Michael Oakeshott
- Michael Walzer
- Michel Foucault
- Muhammad Asad
- Murray Rothbard
- Nancy Fraser
- Noam Chomsky
- Norberto Bobbio
- Paul Hirst* John Holloway
- Raúl Zibechi
- Raya Dunayevskaya
- Raymond Aron
- Richard E. Flathman
- Robert Dahl
- Robert D. Putnam
- Robert N. Bellah
- Robert Nozick
- Roberto Mangabeira Unger
- Ronald Dworkin
- Rosa Luxemburg
- Rose Wilder Lane
- Russell Kirk
- Saul Newman
- Seyla Benhabib
- Sheldon Wolin
- Sidney Webb
- Simone Weil
- Stephen Bronner
- Steven Lukes
- Susan Moller Okin
- Tariq Ali
- Theodor Adorno
- Theodore J. Lowi
- Thomas Pangle
- Tibor Machan
- Tony Cliff
- Vladimir Lenin
- V. O. Key, Jr.* Leszek Kołakowski
- Clayton G. Walker
- Walter Benjamin
- Wendy Brown
- William E. Connolly
- William Galston
- Will Kymlicka