(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.

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Courtesy: hp.gov.in