Political Science Test 1 - Paper 1 [ Shubhra Ranjan Vajiram ]

Political Science Test 1 - Paper 1 section A

Section – A
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Directions: Attempt any five questions. Questions 1 & 5 are compulsory, and any three of the remaining questions selecting at least one question from each section.

Question 1 (All questions carry 10 Marks)

1. Political theory is the most appropriate term to employ in designating that intellectual tradition which affirms the possibility of transcending that sphere of immediate practical concern and ‘viewing’, man’s societal existence from a critical perspective. (Germino). Comment.
2. It is this clear cut individualism which makes Hobbes philosophy the most revolutionary theory of the ages.
3. Feminist argument against public-private dichotomy
4. Berlin’s view on value pluralism
5. Veil of ignorance

Question 2

1. “Reasonable Pluralism is the natural outcome of free exercise of human reason under condition of liberty” (Rawls). In the light of above reason explains the concept of reasonable pluralism, given by Rawls. What challenges it poses to theory of justice and how Rawls proposes to meet the challenges. (20 marks)

2. What are the virtues of democracy and its paradoxes? What are the perceived threats to democracy?(15 marks)

3. Examine the reasons why behaviouralism called for an end to normative political theory. What are the fallacies of behaviouralism which gave rise to post behaviouralsim. (15 marks)

Question 3

1. Examine the communitarian perception of the relationship between ‘good’ and ‘right’. Is communitarianism an alternative to liberalism or just a response? Discuss.(20 marks)

2. Contemporary equality policies tend to focus on cultural and political inequality in distributional goods. Equality now appears to be a concern for difference rather than search for similarities. Illustrate. (15 marks)

3. Why are feminist critical of mainstream political theory. What are major concepts in feminist political theory and how they different from conventional political theory. (15 marks)

Question 4

1. “Power must be analysed as something which circulates or as something which only functions in the form of chain. Power is employed and exercised through a net like organisation. Individuals are vehicles of power not just point of its application”.(Foucault) Critically evaluate. (20 marks)

2. Why does Seymour Lipset contend that legitimacy involves the capacity of the political system to engender and maintain the belief that the existing political; institutions are the most appropriate ones for the society. Examine the dynamics of the relation between legitimacy and consent. (15 marks)

3.The distinction between power and violence is one of the many surprising distinction in the Hannah Arendt politico-phenomology. According to Hannah Arendt the indiscriminate use of the term indicate the deafness to linguistic meaning and blindness to the realities. Elucidate. (15 marks)

Section – B
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Question 5 (All questions carry 10 Marks)

1. A prince, therefore, who is wise and prudent cannot or ought not to keep his word when keeping of it is to his prejudice and of course for which he promised removed
2. The methodological criterion on which our own study must be based is that the supremacy of social groups manifests itself in 2 ways (i) as and (ii) as intellectual domination and moral leadership (Gramsci). Discuss
3. He who bids the law rule may be deemed to bid God and reason alone rule, but he who bids man rule adds an element of the beast; for desire is a wild beast and passion pervert the mind of ruler, even when they are best of men. Aristotle. Comment
4. Discuss the neo-Marxist theory of post-colonial state.
5. What are objections against multiculturalism?

Question 6

1. Why neoliberalism is considered as repudiates of Keynesian state. What is the link between governance, neoliberalism and globalisation? (20 marks)

2. Why post-modernist argue that meaning of the text is never founded or stable and hence we can find multiple meaning and truth. Do you think post-modernism is anti reductionist and pluralist.(15 marks)

3. I want to argue that the principle of the justice are themselves pluralistic inn forms ; that different social goods ought to be distributed for different reasons ijn accordance with different procedures by different agents and all these differences derives from different understanding of the social goods themselves, the inevitable product of historical and cultural particularism, Michael Walzer, Explain.(15 marks)

Question 7

1. Gramsci concept of ideology was distinction and far more developed than that of his predecessor and contemporaries essentially because it overcome both Epiphenomenalism and class reductionism. Explain.(20 marks)

2. Why notion of sovereignty is central to modern political theory. Do you think it is misleading to perceive relation between globalisation and sovereignty as zero sum game? (15 marks)

3. What are the important differences between civil and political rights on one hand and economic social and cultural rights on the other hand. Is it possible for the idea of human rights to encompass both the value of cultural diversity and the imposition of universal standards? (15 marks)

Question 8

1. Why the concept of ideology have so many negative associations. Is Marxism an ideology or science? Does Marxism have future? Discuss.; (20 marks)

2. “Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarianism, provided the end be the improvement and the means justified by actually effecting that end. Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion” (Mill).In the light of above statement explain how Mill is a reluctant democrat.(15 marks)

3. Why Ronald Dworkin rejects welfare egalitarianism and why he suggest that justice regarding equal auction and endowment sensitive auction. Explain the debate between equality of resources and equality of capabilities. (15 marks)