This subject examines some of the key normative ideas and debates underpinning contemporary politics. We examine different ways of thinking about key political values such as freedom, justice, and equality, and we consider the work of some of the most influential thinkers in contemporary political theory. We focus on the work of key liberal philosophers such as John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, and we consider powerful responses to and criticisms of their work by libertarians, egalitarians, feminists, cosmopolitans, and others. Throughout the subject, we consider how these theoretical debates bear on a variety of #real world# political conflicts over taxation, redistribution, education policy, global inequality, and the family.

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