What is political thought? Distinguish political thought from political theory and political philosophy

Question 1 of the IGNOU MPS 105 assignment 2026-27 (Western Political Thought, From Plato to Marx, MA Political Science) asks what political thought is and how political thought vs political theory and political philosophy differ. It carries 20 marks with a limit of about 500 words. This post gives you a complete answer, a comparison table, writing tips and FAQs.

Introduction

The terms political thought, political theory and political philosophy are often used as if they meant the same thing. Courses such as MPS-105 move between them freely: Plato’s Republic is called political philosophy, Hobbes’s Leviathan a political theory, and the whole course “Western political thought”. Yet the three terms point to different levels of reflection on politics, and a good answer must separate them while showing how they overlap.

What Is Political Thought?

Political thought is the broadest of the three. It refers to the ideas, beliefs, values and arguments about political life held by a thinker, a group or a whole society at a given time. Its main features are:

1. Wide in scope: it includes the ideas of philosophers, but also of statesmen, reformers, poets, religious leaders and ordinary people.
2. Any form of expression: it may appear in treatises, speeches, constitutions, pamphlets, letters, epics or folk traditions, not only in systematic books.
3. Tied to its time: it responds to the problems of a particular period and place, such as the Greek city-state, medieval Christendom or the rise of the modern state.
4. Need not be systematic: it may be a set of related ideas rather than a single connected argument.

In this sense we can speak of the political thought of an age (for example, “medieval political thought”) or of a nation, as well as of an individual.

What Is Political Theory?

Political theory is narrower and more disciplined. A theory is a systematic explanation, usually by one thinker, of political phenomena such as the state, power, authority, rights or revolution. It tries to show why things happen as they do and how they are connected.

• It is usually the work of an individual, such as Hobbes’s theory of sovereignty or Marx’s theory of the state.
• It has both explanatory (what is) and normative (what ought to be) sides. In the twentieth century, behaviouralists developed a more empirical political theory based on observation and testing.
• It is more general and logical than political thought: it aims at concepts and propositions that can apply beyond a single situation.

What Is Political Philosophy?

Political philosophy is the most abstract and normative level. It asks fundamental questions: What is justice? Why should we obey the state? What is the good life, and what kind of political order best realises it? It is a branch of philosophy and uses philosophical reasoning to judge and justify political arrangements.

Leo Strauss, in “What Is Political Philosophy?” (1959), described it as the attempt to replace mere opinion about political things with true knowledge of their nature. Plato’s search for the ideal state and justice in the Republic is the classic example; John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (1971) is a modern one. In the 1950s some scholars, such as Peter Laslett, claimed that political philosophy was “dead”, but Isaiah Berlin’s essay “Does Political Theory Still Exist?” (1962) and Rawls’s work showed its revival.

Political Thought vs Political Theory vs Political Philosophy

Basis	Political thought	Political theory	Political philosophy
Scope	Widest: ideas of a whole society, group or person	Narrower: systematic explanation of political phenomena	Most abstract: fundamental questions of politics
Author	Anyone: thinkers, leaders, ordinary people	Usually an individual theorist	Philosophers
Form	Any form: speeches, texts, traditions	Systematic, logically connected propositions	Rigorous philosophical argument
Nature	Descriptive and contextual, time-bound	Explanatory and normative; can be empirical	Mainly normative and evaluative
Example	Medieval political thought	Hobbes’s theory of sovereignty	Plato on justice; Rawls’s theory of justice

How the three are related

The three are best seen as overlapping circles rather than separate boxes. Political thought is the broad field from which theories emerge; political theory organises those ideas into systematic explanations; and political philosophy examines the deepest assumptions and values behind both. A single work, such as Hobbes’s Leviathan, can be read as part of seventeenth-century political thought, as a theory of the state and as a philosophy of political obligation.

Conclusion

Political thought covers all reflection on political life, in any form and by anyone. Political theory gives systematic explanations of political phenomena, and political philosophy raises the most fundamental normative questions about justice, obligation and the good society. Understanding the distinction between political thought vs political theory and philosophy helps students read thinkers from Plato to Marx at the right level, while remembering that the great texts usually do all three at once.

How to write this answer in your IGNOU assignment

• Keep to about 500 words: 50 words of introduction, 120 on political thought, 100 each on theory and philosophy, 80 on the distinction and a short conclusion.
• Answer both parts: first define political thought, then distinguish all three terms. A table is the quickest way to show the distinction.
• Read Unit 1 of MPS-105 on eGyanKosh, which introduces these terms, and use one example from a thinker in the course for each.
• Show overlap: end with one line saying the three are related, not watertight, which shows maturity.
• Write it yourself: use this answer to understand the topic, then write the assignment in your own words and handwriting.

Frequently asked questions

Also read: major theorists of communitarianism (MPS 106). New to IGNOU assignments? Start with our IGNOU study roadmap.

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