Biblioteca della libertà, LIV, 2019 maggio-dicembre, nn. 225-226 • ISSN 2035-5866 DOI 10.23827/BDL_2019_2_8 Nuova serie [www.centroeinaudi.it] Giulia Bistagnino Glen Newey and the ConĐeƉt oĨ the WoliƟĐal 147 1. Introduction In the past years, the methodological debate in political theory has seen the emergence of a new wave of political realism. As well-known, political re- alism is a long-standing tradition of political thought, which goes back to Tucydides and Niccolò Machiavelli, concerned with providing guiding principles for political action based on accurate descriptions of politics and on the consideration that the political realm is, in some sense, autonomous. Contemporary political realists have not only presented new interpretations and ideas about the key features of political realism, but also have embraced such standpoint as a methodological reaction against mainstream liberal, normative theorizing, which they deem moralistic and too ideal. 1 Within this debate, Glen Newey’s work constitutes a decisive contribu- tion, which represents an important component of the contemporary re- naissance of political realism. On a methodological level, Newey argues that political theory should deal with what is distinctively “political”. Indeed, one of Newey’s main concerns regards how political theory should be conceived and carried out. From his point of view, contemporary political philosophy, understood in terms of normative theories of liberalism, is not political in the relevant sense for its scope is too narrow. According to Newey, norma- tive liberal theorists misunderstand the nature of politics and, in turn, dis- 1 For discussions of realism as a movement opposed to the “applied-ethics” approach, see Baderin 2014; Galston 2010; Philp 2012; Rossi, Sleat 2014; Stears 2007.