(Syllabus) Himachal Pradesh PSC: State Eligibility Test (Political Science)

Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission

SET: Political Science (Code-20)

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, Licke, Rousseau.
  • European Thought-II Bentham, J.S.Mill, Hegal, 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 Ambedhar, 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 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 Minister, 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 ldeology 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 settlement 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, Theaty 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, Objective, 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 : Lenin, Mao, Gandhi.

Unit-II.

  • Political Thought.
  • Plato and Aristotle .
  • Machiavelli
  • Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and J.S.Mill
  • Karl Marx
  • Gandhi, M.N.Roy, Aurobindo Ghosh

Unit-III.

  • Comprative 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 & Regional Issues, Problems of Nation-Building and Intergation

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.

Go TO HPSC Examination Syllabus Page

Courtesy: hp.gov.in