In this talk, I take up a question in the context of the “ideal/nonideal theory” debate in political philosophy. The question is this: What, if any, is the practical value of political ideals? I consider and reject two prominent answers. The first is that principles expressing political ideals are not practically valuable because they are evaluative but not prescriptive. Here I argue that this is wrong because every evaluative principle entails a certain kind of prescriptive principle. The second answer I consider is that political ideals have no practical value because, as David Wiens argues, they do not help us identify prescriptive principles that apply to unjust or nonideal circumstances. Here I argue that Wiens’ claim rests on an inaccurate model of political normative theorizing. I suggest an alternative model, which I then use to explain what the practical value of a given political ideal consists in.