These essays analyse the work of two twentieth century political theorists isaiah berlin and hannah arendt respectively both essays address how far these influential political theorists take political institutions seriously chapter 11 by waldrons own admission p 289 is a polemic on the political thought of berlin the central substantive thrust of the chapter is that berlin overlooks the importance of political institutions although agreeing with berlins analysis of value . Political political theory essays on institutions jeremy waldron political institutions are the main subject of political theory or they ought to be making the case with his trademark forcefulness and intellectual aplomb jeremy waldron argues in favor of reorienting the theory of politics toward the institutions and institutional principles of . Political political theory suggests that understanding the value of political institutions primarily by reference to their legitimacy makes those institutions more concrete such that they cannot be easily de reified or suddenly made to disappear and making institutions more concrete ie reifying institutions that are born of parchment is an imperative in view of their proper normative justification which regards them as valuable in ways that are not necessarily connected to . Political political theory essays on institutions by jeremy waldron cambridge ma harvard university press 2016 xi 403 pp political theory is a field that continues to hold little sway in the discipline the 2007 decision by the department of political science at pennsylvania state university to eliminate political theory from those subfields available for graduate student training provoked an outcry that has all but abated no drastic reformulation of the mission of the subfield if