I define political realism as a distinctive family of approaches to the study, practice, and normative evaluation of politics that tend to (a) affirm the “autonomy” (or, more minimally, the “distinctiveness”) of politics; (b) hold an agonistic account of politics; (c) reject as “utopian” or “moralist” those approaches, practices, and evaluations that seem to deny these facts; and (d) prioritize the requirements of political order and stability over the demands of justice (or, more minimally, reject any kind of absolute priority of justice over other political values).