Mains Political Science

Paper – I

Political Theory and Indian Politics:

1  Political Theory: meaning and approaches

2  Theories of the State: Liberal, Neo-liberal, Marxist, Pluralist, Post-colonial and feminist

3  Justice: Conceptions of justice with special reference to Rawl’s theory of justice and its communitarian critiques

4  Equality: Social, political and economic; relationship between equality and freedom; Affirmative action

5 Rights: Meaning and theories; different kinds of rights; concept of Human Rights

6  Democracy: Classical and contemporary theories; different models of democracy – representative, participatory and deliberative

7 Concept of power, hegemony, ideology and legitimacy

8  Political Ideologies: Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, Gandhism and Feminism

9  Indian Political Thought : Dharamshastra, Arthashastra and Buddhist traditions ; Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Sri Aurobindo, M.K. Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, M.N. Roy 

Political Science and International Relations

Paper – II

Comparative Politics and International Relations

Section-A Comparative Analysis and International Politics

1 Approaches to the study of comparative politics : traditional approaches; political economy, political sociology or political system approaches; Nature of political process in the Third World

2 The Modern State : Evolution, the contemporary trends in the advanced industrial countries and the third world

3 Development : Strategies and contemporary discourse

4 Concepts of International politics : Power, national interest, balance of power, national security, collective security and peace

5 Theories of International politics Marxist, Realist, Systems, Decision-making and Game Theory

6 Determinants of foreign policy : Domestic compulsions, geopolitics, geoeconomics and global order

7 Origin and contemporary relevance of the Cold War, nature of the post-cold war global order

8 Major issues of world politics : Cuban Missile Crisis; Vietnam War, Oil Crisis, Afghan Civil War, Gulf War, Collapse of the Soviet Union, Yugoslav Crisis

9 Non-alignment : Concept and movement; Third World Movements for global justice, Non-alignment in the post cold war era

10 The evolution of the international economic system-from Bretton woods to WTO, the North-South dimension

11 International organisations UN and its specialized agencies : International Court of Justice; ILO, UNICEF, WHO UNESCO

12 Regional, organizations such as the ASEAN, APEC, EU, SAARC, NAFTA

13 Contemporary Global Concerns : Democracy, Human Rights, Ecology, Gender Justice, Global commons, Communication

Section-B India and the World

1 Indian Foreign Policy : Historical origins, determinants; the institutions of policy-making; continuity and change

2 India and the Non-Alignment Movement : Evolution and contemporary relevance. Socio- political basis of non-alignment-domestic and global

3 Major issues in Indian foreign policy : Sino-Indian Border War (1962); Indo-Pakistan War (1971) and the liberation of Bangladesh; IPKF in Sri Lanka; India as military nuclear power (1998)

4 Conflict and co-operation in South Asia : India’s relations with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal. Regional co-operation and SAARC. Kashmir question in India’s foreign policy

5 India’s relation with Africa and Latin America

6 India and South East Asia; ASEAN

7 India and the major powers : USA, EU, China, Japan and Russia

8 India and the UN System : India’s role in UN Peace Keeping and global disarmament

9 India and the emerging international economic order; multilateral agencies-WTO, IMF, IBRD, ADB

10 India and the question of nuclear weapons : NPT and CTBT