(Paper) IAS Mains Previous Year Paper Political Science (1984)

Paper: IAS Mains Previous Year Paper Political Science (1984) 

Paper-I- Political Science-1984 (Mains)

SECTION A

1. Comment on any three of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) 'If a State is constituted on natural principles, the wisdom it possesses as a whole will be due to the knowledge residing in the smallest part, the one which takes the lead and governs the rest.' (Plato)
(b) 'Life in a community......enables man...... to achieve a plentitude of life: nor merely to exist, but to live fully, with all that is necessary to well-being.' (St. Thomas Aquinas)
(c) 'Though nothing can be immortal which mortals make, yet, if men had use of reason they pretend to, their commonwealth might be secured at least from perishing by internal disease.' (Thomas Hobbes)
(d) 'To define freedom of the press as freedom to say and write whatever we please is parallel to the assertion that freedom as such means freedom to do as we please.' (Hegel)

2. Discuss the problems of contemporary liberalism as they are manifested in its theory of democracy.

3. Briefly discuss the nature and scope of Political Science and examine the extent to which it can be regarded as a science or only as a technique for the successful acquisition and exercise of power.

4. Give a critical account of Marxist and Maoist conceptions of revolution and bring out the nature of their relationship to the earlier theories of revolution.

SECTION B

5. Comment on any three of the following in about 200 words each :
(a) 'The Indian Parliament is not a sovereign legislature. It has vast but not unlimited powers’.
(b) 'The right to property had proved to be the most controversial of the fundamental rights.'
(c) 'Satyagraba is the most important and original contribution of Mahatma Gandhi to mankind.'
(d) 'The jurisdiction and powers of the Supreme Court of India are in their nature and extent wider than those exercised by the highest Court of any other country.'

6. Comment on the view that the study of comparative politics and government has become parochial and descriptive rather than systematic and universal.

7. Examine the main trends of the Indian party system since 1969 and discuss the phenomenon of defections and its implications for the working of the Indian political system.

8. Discuss in general and with suitable examples the part played towards modernization of Afro-Asian societies by the leadership of those societies during the second half of the twentieth century.

Paper - II- Political Science-1984 (Mains)

SECTION A

1. Comment on any three of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) Ideology hardly plays any role in foreign policy.
(b) The impact of Summit diplomacy.
(c) The meaning and significance of neocolonialism.
(d) Distinction between arms control and disarmament.

2. 'The nature of the sovereign Nation-State system underwent fundamental changes with the advent of the nuclear weapons system.' ‘Despite the emergence of nuclear weapons and the over-kill capacity of the superpowers, the sovereign Nation-State system continues to retain its essential characteristics’ In either of the above statements a correct assessment of the international system and if so, to what extent?

3. The decision-making approach to the study of international relations as developed by Snyder, Bruck and "Spain (SBS) cannot be considered as a serious tool of analysis.' Examine this view and discuss the important refinements which have been made in the decisionmaking approach since the SBS model was first developed.

4. 'Both because of its structure and its strategy, the Non-Aligned Movement is unlikely to be able to achieve a new international economic order ' Critically examine this statement and indicate the extent of the success of the Non-Aligned Movement in modifying the international economic system.

SECTION B

5. Comment in about 200 words each on any three of the following:
(a) Distinction between First, Second and Third Worlds.
(b) South Asian Regional Co-operation is essentially a mirage.
(c) The tension around the issue of Diego Garcia.
(d) PNE. 

6. 'The foreign policy of a country is determined more by the external environment than by domestic factors.' Discuss in depth the validity of this statement in the context of the foreign policy of the United States during the nineteen seventies and early eighties.

7. 'It is paradoxical that while India claims to be a peace-loving country, it has managed to develop conflict and tensions with almost all its neighbors.' Evaluate this statement and critically explain this paradox.

8. Examine Chinese foreign policy after the death of Mao with due reference to the shifts, if any, that have occurred since then.