Political Theory: Thinkers, Concepts, and Argument Structures
Core concepts
Political theory items test whether you can match thinkers to claims, methods, and institutions - not trivia. Place each thinker on three axes: human nature, the purpose of government, and the source of obligation. Know Plato's guardians and noble lie; Aristotle's classification of regimes by who rules and for whose benefit, plus his preference for a mixed "polity"; Machiavelli's separation of statecraft from Christian morality in The Prince alongside his republicanism in the Discourses; Hobbes's sovereign as the remedy for the war of all against all; Locke's trust, consent, and right of revolution; Rousseau's general will and popular sovereignty; Montesquieu's institutional checks; Madison's extended republic as a cure for faction; Mill's harm principle and the tyranny of the majority; Marx's base/superstructure and alienation; Berlin's negative versus positive liberty; Burke's defense of inherited practice; and the Rawls–Nozick dispute over the difference principle versus entitlement.
Traps
Do not swap Hobbes and Locke on the state of nature, or conflate Rousseau's "general will" with the "will of all" (the mere aggregation of private preferences). Machiavelli is not a simple immoralist: the Discourses prize civic virtue and institutional conflict. Keep Mill's harm principle distinct from mere offense - only other-regarding harm justifies coercion. Aristotle classifies by ruler and beneficiary, not by legality alone. Rawls's veil of ignorance is a device for choosing principles, not a claim that people are naturally altruistic.
Rule of thumb
When a stem describes a policy, ask which value is being traded off and which theorist treats that value as primary. A ban on offensive speech implicates Mill (liberty and harm), Rawls (public reason and equal liberty), and Burke (inherited social fabric) in different ways - the correct answer follows the value the stem emphasizes.