What is the role of political theory in a world of partisan politics? Various approaches to this long-standing problem are raised in this stimulating collection of essays. Arlene Saxonhouse begins the volume by usefully reminding us of Plato's metaphor of the ship in book 6 of the Republic, in which self-interested sailors fight over the boat's direction "while the one who knows how to guide the boat, who can read the stars, stands aft staring upward and is considered useless" (p. 19). Similarly in the Assembly, self-interested rhetoricians may sway the crowd, without any concern for the pursuit of truth.