Political Science and International Relations

Paper I (Political Theory and Indian Politics:)

• Political Theory: meaning and approaches.
• Theories of the State:  Liberal, Neo-liberal, Marxist, Pluralist, Post-colonial and feminist.
• Justice: Conceptions of justice with special reference to Rawl’s theory of justice and its communitarian critiques
• Equality: Social, political and economic; relationship between equality and freedom; Affirmative action.
• Rights: Meaning and theories; different kinds of rights; concept of Human Rights.
• Democracy: Classical and contemporary theories; different models of democracy – representative, participatory and deliberative.
• Concept of power, hegemony, ideology and legitimacy.
• Political Ideologies: Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, Gandhism
  and Feminism.
• Indian Political Thought : Dharamshastra, Arthashastra and Buddhist traditions;  Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Sri Aurobindo,  M.K. Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, M.N. Roy .
• Western Political Thought: Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, John
  S. Mill, Marx, Gramsci, Hannah Arendt.

Indian Government and Politics:

• Indian Nationalism:
  • Political Strategies of India’s Freedom Struggle: Constitutionalism to mass Satyagraha, Non-cooperation, Civil Disobedience; Militant and revolutionary movements, Peasant and workers’ movements.
  • Perspectives on Indian National Movement: Liberal, Socialist and Marxist;
    Radical humanist and Dalit.
• Making of the Indian Constitution: Legacies of the British rule; different social
  and political perspectives.
• Salient Features of the Indian Constitution: The Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties, Directive Principles; Parliamentary System and  Amendment Procedures; Judicial Review and Basic Structure doctrine.
• Basic numeric skills of the class X level such as numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude and data interpreatation.
• Principal Organs of the Union Government: Envisaged role and actual working of  the Executive, Legislature and Supreme Court.
• Principal Organs of the State Government: Envisaged role and actual working
  of the Executive, Legislature and High Courts.
• Grassroots Democracy: Panchayati Raj and Municipal Government significance of 73 and 74 rd Amendments; Grassroot movements.
• Statutory Institutions/Commissions:  Election Commission, Comptroller and
  th Auditor General, Finance Commission, Union Public Service Commission,
  National Commission for Scheduled Castes, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, National Commission for Women; National Human Rights
  Commission, National Commission for Minorities, National Backward Classes
  Commission.
• Federalism: Constitutional provisions; changing nature of centre-state relations; integrationist tendencies and regional aspirations; inter-state disputes.
• Planning and Economic Development : Nehruvian and Gandhian perspectives; role of planning and public sector; Green Revolution, land reforms and agrarian relations; liberalilzation and economic reforms.
• Caste, Religion and Ethnicity in Indian Politics.
• Party System: National and regional political parties, ideological and social bases of parties; patterns of coalition politics; Pressure groups, trends in electoral behaviour; changing socio- economic profile of Legislators.
• Social Movements: Civil liberties and human rights movements; women’s movements; environmentalist movements.

POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Paper II (Political Theory and Indian Politics)

• Comparative Politics: Nature and major approaches; political economy and
  political sociology perspectives; limitations of the comparative method.
• State in comparative perspective: Characteristics and changing nature of the
  State in capitalist and socialist economies, and, advanced industrial and developing societies.
• Justice: Conceptions of justice with special reference to Rawl’s theory of justice and its communitarian critiques
• Politics of Representation and Participation: Political parties, pressure groups
  and social movements in advanced industrial and developing societies.
• Globalisation:  Responses from developed and developing societies.
• Approaches to the Study of International Relations: Idealist, Realist, Marxist,
  Functionalist and Systems theory.
• Key concepts in International Relations: National interest, Security and power; Balance of power and deterrence; Transnational actors and collective security; World capitalist economy and globalisation.
• Changing International Political Order:
  • Rise of super powers; strategic and ideological Bipolarity, arms race and Cold War; nuclear threat;
  • Nonaligned movement: Aims and achievements;
  • Collapse of the Soviet Union; Unipolarity and American hegemony; relevance of non-alignment in the contemporary world.
• Evolution of the International Economic System: From Brettonwoods to  WTO; Socialist economies and the CMEA (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance);  Third  World demand for new international economic order; Globalisation of the world economy.
• United Nations: Envisaged role and actual record; specialized UN agenciesaims and functioning; need for UN reforms.
• Regionalisation of World Politics:  EU, ASEAN, APEC, SAARC, NAFTA.
• Contemporary Global Concerns:  Democracy, human rights, environment,
  gender justice, terrorism, nuclear proliferation.