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    SET examination , Maharastra state, Paper II , syllabus and sample questions for Political Science

    PAPER—II

    1. Political Theory and Thought
    Ancient Indian Political Thought : Kautilya and Shanti Parva.
    Greek Political Thought : Plato and Aristotle.
    European Thought I : Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau.
    European Thought-II : Bentham. J. S. Mill, Hegel, Marx and Green.
    Contemporary political Thought-I : Lenin, Mao, Gramsci.
    Contemporary Political Thought-II : Rawls, Nozic and Communitarians.
    Modern Indian Thought : Gandhi, M. N. Roy, Aurobindo Ghosh, Joy Prakash, Ambedkar,
    Savarkar.
    Concepts and Issue-I : Medieval Political Thought : Church State Relationship and Theory of
    Two Swords.

    Concepts and Issue-II : Behaviouralism and Post- Behaviouralism, Decline and Resurgence of
    Political Theory.
    Democracy, Liberty and Equality.

    2. Comparative Politics and Political Analysis
    Evolution of comparative Politics as a discipline; Nature and scope.
    Approaches to the study of comparative politics : Traditional, Structural-Functional, Systems
    and Marxist.
    Constitutionalism : Concepts, Problems and Limitations.
    Forms of Government : Unitary-Federal, Parliamentary-Presidential.
    Organs of Government : Executive, Legislature, Judiciary-their interrelationship in comparative
    perspective.
    Party Systems and Pressure Groups; Electoral Systems.
    Bureaucracy-types and roles.
    Political Development and Political Modernization.
    Political Culture, Political Socialization and Political Communication.
    Political Elite; Elitist theory of Democracy.
    Power, Authority and Legitimacy.
    Revolution : Theories and Types.
    Dependency : Development and Under Development.

    3. Indian Government and Politics
    National Movement, Constitutional Developments and the Making of Indian Constitution.
    Ideological Bases of the Indian Constitution, Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties and Directive
    Principles.
    Constitution as Instrument of Socio-Economic Change, Constitutional Amendments and Review.
    Structure and Process-I : (+) President, Prime Minister, Council of ministers Working of the
    Parliamentary system.

    Structure and Process-II : Governor, Chief Minister, Council of Ministers, State Legislature.
    Panchayati Raj Institutions : Rural and Urban, their working.
    Federalism : Theory and Practice in India; Demands of Autonomy and Separatist Movements;
    Emerging trends in Centre-State Relations.
    Judiciary : Supreme Court, High Courts, Judicial Review, Judicial Activism including Public Interest
    Litigation cases, Judicial Reforms.
    Political Parties, Pressure Groups, Public Opinion, Media; Subaltern and Peasant Movements.
    Elections, Electoral Behaviour, Election Commission and Electoral Reforms.

    4. Public Administration
    Development of Public Administration as a discipline, Approaches to the study of Public
    Administration : Decision-making, Ecological and Systems;
    Development Administration.
    Theories of organization.
    Principles of organization : Line and staff, unity of command, hierarchy, span of control, centralization and decentralization, Types of organization-formal and informal; Forms of organization ; department, public corporation and board.
    Chief Executive : Types, functions and roles.
    Personnel administration : Recruitment, Training, Promotion, Discipline, Morale:
    Employee-Employer Relations.
    Bureaucracy : Theories, Types and Roles; Max Weber and his critics Civil servant-Minister
    relationship.
    Leadership, its role in decision-making; Communication.
    Financial Administration : Budget, Audit, Control over Finance with special reference to India
    and UK.
    Good Governance; Problems of Administrative Corruption; Transparency and Accountability; Right
    to Information.
    Grievance Redressal Institutions : Ombudsman, Lokpal and Lokayukta.

    5. International Relations
    Contending Theories and Approaches to the study of International Relations:
    Idealist, Realist, Systems, Game, Communication and Decision-making.
    Power, Interest and Ideology in International Relations; Elements of Power :
    Acquisition use and limitations of power, Perception, Formulation and Promotion of National
    Interest, Meaning, Role and Relevance of Ideology in International Relations.
    Arms and Wars : Nature, causes and types of wars/conflicts including ethnic disputes;
    conventional, Nuclear/bio-chemical wars; deterrence, Arms race, Arms control and Disarmament.
    Peaceful settelment of disputes, conflict resolution, Diplomacy, World-order and Peace studies.
    Cold war, Alliances, Non-alignment, End of Cold war, Globalisation.
    Rights and Duties of states in international law, intervention, Treaty law, prevention and abolition of war.
    Political Economy of International Relations ; New International Economic Order, North- South Dialogue, South-South Cooperation, WTO, Neo-colonialism and Dependency. Regional and sub-regional organisations especially SAARC, ASEAN, OPEC, OAS. United Nations : Aims, Objectives, Structure and Evaluation of the working of UN : Peace and Development perspectives; charter Revision; Power-struggle and Diplomacy within UN. Financing and Peace-keeping operations.
    India’s Role in International affairs : India’s relations with its neighbours, wars, security concerns and pacts, Mediatory Role, distinguishing features of Indian Foreign Policy and Diplomacy.

    PAPER—III (Part A & B)
    (CORE and ELECTIVE/OPTIONAL)

    Unit—I
    Political Theory
    Nature of Political Theory, its main concerns, decline and resurgence since 1970s
    Liberalism and Marxism
    Individual and Social Justice
    Role of Ideology
    Theories of change : Leniu, Mao, Gandhi

    Unit—II
    Political Thought
    Plato and Aristotle
    Machavelli
    Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and J. S. Mill
    Karl Marx
    Gandhi, M. N. Roy, Aurobindo Ghosh

    Unit—III
    Comparative Politics and Political Analysis
    Approaches to the study of comparative Politics
    Constitutionalism in theory and practice
    Executive, Legislature and Judiciary with special reference to India, USA, UK and
    Switzerland
    Party system and role of opposition, Electoral Process
    Separation of Powers, Rule of Law and Judicial Review

    Unit—IV
    Political Development
    Political Modernization
    Political Socialisation and Political Culture
    Power and Authority
    Political Elite

    Unit—V
    Making of the Indian Constitution
    Fundamental Rights and Duties, and Directive Principles
    Union Executive. Parliament
    Supreme Court, Judicial Activism
    Indian Federalism : Theory, Practice and Problems

    Unit—VI
    Dynamics of state politics
    Local Governments : Rural and Urban
    Political Parties, Pressure Groups, and Public Opinion
    Elections, Electoral Reforms
    Class, Caste, Gender, Dalit and Regional Issues, Problems of Nation-Building and Integration

    Unit—VII
    Growth of public Administration as a discipline: and New Public Administration Theories of
    Organisation (Classical, Scientific, Human Relations): Principles of Organisation.
    Chief Executive
    Control over Administration-Judicial and Legislative
    Bureaucracy

    Unit—VIII
    Development Planning and Administration in India
    Bureaucracy and Challenges of Development
    Administrative Culture; Administrative Corruption, and Administrative Reforms.
    Panchayati Raj
    Impact of Liberalization on Public Administration

    Unit—IX
    Theories of International Relations
    Ideology, Power and Interest
    Conflicts and Conflict-Resolution
    Changing concept of National Security and Challenges to the Nation-State System Arms and
    Arms-control

    Unit—X
    End of Cold War, Globalisation and Political Economy of International Relations in the
    Contemporary World,
    Determinants and Compulsions of India’s Foreign Policy; India’s Nuclear Policy.
    India’s Relations with Neighbours and USA.
    India’s Role in the UN.
    India and Regional Organizations (SAARC, ASEAN), Indian Ocean.

    SAMPLE QUESTIONS
    PAPER—II

    1. Voting behaviour means
    (A) The voters do not behave properly at the time of elections.
    (B) Study of the factors that Influence the choice of the voters.
    (C) Study of those voters who do not vote for the ruling party.
    (D) Study of the phenomenon of bandwagon effect.

    2. Your State Government wants to nationalise the private transport companies and create
    a public corporation.
    Which of the following step will be the first condition for its creation ?
    (A) Order of Governor for the appointment of the Chairman.
    (B) Creation of a fund for the purpose.
    (C) Make it a juristic personality.
    (D) Pass a law defining the field of autonomy.