A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle; high stakes and suspense are the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. The stakes in these stories are immense, and the fate of a country is often in the hands of one individual. Political corruption, organized crime, terrorism, and warfare are common themes.

Political thrillers can be based on facts such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy or the Watergate Scandal. There is a strong overlap with the conspiracy thriller.

Some early examples can be found in the historical novels of Alexandre Dumas (particularly his Three Musketeers novels, which often involve political conspiracies), as well as such literary works as Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent.

Gilles (1936) contains an early example of the political thriller: in one of the book's subplots the protagonist Gilles Gambier finds himself embroiled in a left-wing assassination plot against the Prime Minister. The plot falls apart due to the ineptness of the conspirators, and Gilles ends with the protagonist leaving to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

The actual political thriller came to life in the early days of the Cold War. Graham Greene's The Quiet American (1955) tells about the American involvement in Vietnam during the First Indochina War. Richard Condon's The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is set in the aftermath of the Korean War and the days of McCarthyism. In Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal, an assault on Charles de Gaulle has to be prevented.

Other authors of political thrillers include Jeffrey Archer and Daniel Silva. In Bengali literature, Samaresh Majumdar's Aat Kuthuri Noy Dorja (বাংলা: আট কুঠুরি নয় দরজা, meaning: "Eight Rooms and Nine Doors") is one example. A political thriller that happens in the backdrop of Bihar and Indian politics is Fawaz Jaleel's 2021 Nobody Likes an Outsider.

Several Alfred Hitchcock films already contain elements of the political thriller, such as The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, and Foreign Correspondent. In 1962, John Frankenheimer made a film adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate.

The late 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of political thrillers that actively reflected the backdrop of the Vietnam and Watergate Scandal eras in US military and political history and presented a largely unvarnished view of the machinations and cynicism of modern-day political leadership, including assertions around the convergence of politicians and the secret services colluding to create a so-called deep state focused on neutralizing the will of the people and actively taking out dissension. Films such as All the President's Men (based on the Watergate Scandal), The Parallax View, whose opening scene actively draws on the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, The Conversation and Three Days of The Condor, took political and conspiracy thrillers to new heights of paranoia, narrative complexity and realism.