COURSE MANUAL

POLITICAL SCIENCE I

B.A.LL.B.

SS1102

Course Instructors

UPASANA MAHANTA

KALYANI UNKULE

SEMESTER I

(ACADEMIC YEAR 2014-2015)

CONTENTS

  1. Part I
  2. Information related to the Course....……………………………………3
  3. Part II
  4. Course Aims…………………………………………..……………… 4
  5. Course Description ...... 5
  6. Course Intended Learning Outcomes…… …………………………. 5
  7. Grading ofStudent Achievement…………………………………….. 6
  8. Part III
  9. Key Word Syllabus………………………………………….…….…. 9
  10. Lecture Program…………………………………………………….... 9
  11. Readings………………………………………….…………….……...11
  12. Part IV – Weekly Teaching Outline
  13. Introduction and theories of the State(Week I-V)…………………12-13
  14. Political Philosophy (Week VI-VIII)………………………………14-15
  15. Forms of Government (WeekIX & X)………………………..………16
  16. Organs of the State (Week XI - XIV)………………………..…..…17-19
  17. Part V - Details of Assessments and Deadlines...... 19

Information on Political Science offered by JGLS

Semester A in 2014

The information herein is provided by the Course Coordinator. This syllabus should be viewed as a general guide and may be revised during the course of the semester.

Part I

Course title:Political Science I

Course Code:SS1102

Course Duration:One Semester

No. of Credit Units:4

Level:B.A.LL.B.

Hours of Instruction: 5 hours per week

Medium of Instruction:English

Pre-requisites:Nil

Pre-cursors:Nil

Equivalent courses:Nil

Exclusive courses:Nil

Part II

  1. Course Aims

The course:

  • Examines the intersection between law and political science for a better appreciation of theoretical underpinnings
  • Introduces the theories of the state and sovereignty
  • Explores the historical development and the functions of the modern state
  • Introduces the political theories of liberalism, totalitarianism, socialism and Marxism
  1. Course Description

This introductory course to political science will acquaint students withfoundational concepts of political theory and thought. In addition, it will familiarize studentswith the functioning of the Indian political systemwhilealso providing a comparative perspective vis-à-vis other political systems in the world.

At the end of the course, the students will be able to:

  • Understand the various theories on the evolution of the state and the functions of the modern state
  • Develop a sound knowledge of the major theoretical currents of liberalism, socialism and Marxism and graspits relevance in the Indian political system
  • Develop an understanding of the institutional framework of government and role of the legislature, executive and judiciary in India
  • Approach and undertake more rigorous study of theoretical perspectives in Political Science in later semesters
  1. Course Intended Learning Outcomes

Course Intended Learning Outcomes / Teaching and Learning Activities / Assessment Tasks/Activities
  1. Describe, explain and analyse the theories of the state and sovereignty
  1. Analyse and critically evaluate competing political theories of liberalism, totalitarianism, socialism and Marxism
  1. Understand and evaluate the different organs of the government and the doctrine of separation of powers
/ Reading of textbooks and research articles
  1. Students will acquire knowledge of the perspectives pertaining to the topics to be covered in the syllabus.
  2. Preparation outside of the class
Lectures
  1. Students will be given guidance on their reading and their research for their lectures and tutorials
  2. Students will, by responding to questions and performing exercises, develop their analytical and critical capabilities
Tutorials
  1. Students will research and give group presentations on selected topics
/ End of course take home examination (50% of marks)
Attendance, participation in class, group presentationin tutorials(25% of marks)
Assignments (25% of marks)
  1. GRADING OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
  2. Passing Grade:

To pass this course, students must obtain a minimum of 50% in each of the coursework and the examination elements of the assessment. Coursework for this purpose means those ways in which students are assessed otherwise than by the end of sessions examination. End of semester exam will be in the form of a traditional 3 hours written examination.

Letter Grade / Grade Value / Total Course Marks
(50 for exam, 25 for assignments and 25 for presentation) / Grade Definitions and Explanation
O / 7 / 70 and above / Outstanding / Sound knowledge of the subject matter, excellent organizational capacity, ability to synthesize ideas, rules and principles, critically analyse existing materials and originality in thinking and presentation.
A+ / 6 / 65 to 69.75 / Excellent / Sound knowledge of the subject matter, thorough understanding of issues; ability to synthesize ideas, rules and principles and critical and analytical ability.
A / 5 / 60 to 64.75 / Good / Good understanding of the subject matter, ability to identify issues and provide balanced solutions to problems and good critical and analytical skills.
B+ / 4 / 55 to 59.75 / Adequate / Adequate knowledge of the subject matter to go to the next level of study, and reasonable critical and analytical skills.
B / 3 / 50 to 54.75 / Marginal / Limited knowledge of the subject matter and irrelevant use of materials, and poor critical and analytical skills.
F / 0.0 / Below 50 / Failure / Poor comprehension ofthe
subject matter; poor critical and analytical skills and marginal use of the relevant materials. Will require repeating the course.
  • Class Format

There will be five hours of class per week. Students are expected to review course materials in advance of each class and will be called upon to participate in the class without prior notice. Thorough preparation, active participation and contribution of students in the presentation will be monitored by the course instructors on a continuous basis throughout the semester. Class participation, attendance and group presentations will form 25% of the total grade.

Students are expected to attend all classes and to complete all required readings and assignments. Information on these assignments will be provided in the class.

Attendance in lectures is mandatory. Students who fail to be present for 75% of the lectures for the semester without compelling extenuating circumstances will be failed.

  • Guidelines regarding Assignment and warning again Plagiarism:

Students are encouraged to read, think, assimilate and thereafter attempt assignment. Wherever possible, it will be useful to present ideas in your own simple words demonstrating your own understanding of the issues involved and of the analysis thereof. Original thinking and writing as well as adeptness in the use of various concepts of political science will be rewarded. A careful reading of various materials prescribed for the course will give the student an idea of the style and academic rigour adopted by political scientists. Student should always consult the instructorabout the veracity and authenticity of the particular website and its suitability of researching topics covered in this syllabus. If any student is relying on the authority of another scholar or any website, please acknowledge source by way of footnotes and place such material within quotes.

Plagiarism means “To take the words or an idea of someone else and pass it off as one’s own”. Plagiarism is a serious matter and will be penalized.

Any idea, sentence or paragraph you cull from a web source must be credited with the original source. If you paraphrase or directly quote from a web source in the exam, presentation or essays, the source must be explicitly mentioned. You should not feel free to plagiarise content, be it from scholarly sources (i.e. books and journal articles) or from the internet. The university has strict rules with consequences for students involved in plagiarism. This is an issue of academic integrity on which no compromise will be made, especially as students have already been trained in the perils of lifting sentences or paragraphs from others and claiming authorship for them.

Part III

  1. KEYWORD SYLLABUS

State, social contract, sovereignty, globalization, liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, federalism, presidential form of government, parliamentary form of government, executive, legislature, judiciary, and the doctrine of separation of powers.

  1. LECTURE PROGRAM

The following programme is intended to be only a guide and is subject to variation as and when circumstances may render necessary.

Teaching Week / Lecture Topic
UNIT - I INTRODUCTION AND THEORIES OF THE STATE
1 / INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE
-Why study Political Science?
-Relationship between law and political science
2 / IDEA OF THE STATE
-Origin and Evolution of the modern state
-State and Nation State (Benedict Anderson)
-State Craft (Kautilya and Machiavelli)
3 / THEORIES ON THE EMERGENCE OF THE STATE
-Force Theory, Divine Rights Theory, Social Contract
4 / STATE SOVEREIGNTY
-Theories of Sovereignty (Hobbes and Jean Bodin)
-Difference between political sovereignty and legal sovereignty
-Globalization and the Retreat of the State (Saskia Sassen, Krasner, Appadurai)
5 / TUTORIALS
UNIT – II POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
6 and 7 / LIBERALISM AND TOTALITARIANISM
-Classical Liberalism and Liberal Democracy (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, James Mill and JS Mill)
-Democratic Legitimacy and Authoritarianism (Hitler and Mussolini)
-Liberty, Equality and Justice
-Contemporary Democratic Movements (Arab Spring, intra state conflicts, terrorism)
8 / SOCIALISM AND MARXISM
-Engels, Marx, Rosal Luxemborg, Harold Laski and Gramsci
-World System Theorists (Samir Amin and Emanuel Wallterstein)
UNIT - III FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
9 / UNITARY AND FEDERAL STATES
10 / PARLIAMENTARY AND PRESIDENTIAL FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
11 / INDIAN CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
-Constitutionalism and Philosophy of the Indian Constitution
-Fundamental Rights and DPSP
UNIT - IV ORGANS OF THE STATE
12 / LEGISLATURE
-Union Parliament and State Legislatures (Bicameral and Unicameral)
-How a bill becomes an Act? (Money Bills)
13 / EXECUTIVE
-Prime Minister and Council of Ministers
-Role and Powers of the President
14 / JUDICIARY
-Structure of the Judiciary
-Judicial Review and Judicial Activism
15 / DOCTRINE OF SEPERATION OF POWERS
16 / TUTORIAL – GROUP PRESENTATIONS
  1. READINGS

A course package will be circulated in the first class.

Reading (Books):

  • David Held (2000) Political Theory and the Modern State: Essays on State, Power and Democracy, Polity Press
  • Rajeev Bhargava and Ashok Acharya (2008) (eds.). Political Theory: An Introduction, Pearson Longman
  • L.S. Rathore, S.A.H. Haqqi (2008) Political Theory and Organisation for law students, Eastern Book Company

Journal Articles:

An exhaustive reading list is provided under the section ‘Weekly Teaching Outline’.

Part IV

WEEKLY TEACHING OUTLINE

WEEK I : INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

The evolution of community into societies and then into a polity have been a process that has been evolved through history. ‘Political’ then pertains to actions done within and by the community. Specifically it refers to decision-making within and about the community. There are two aspects to the study of political science – the moral and the institutional aspect. The moral aspect focuses on the ethical values that should be protected within the polity – this could include, freedom or autonomy, justice, equality, etc. Organizational aspect focuses on how should we politically organize ourselves to achieve these ethical values. Political thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, J.S. Mill and Marx have all contributed to the understanding of the values and the shape of the polis to best achieve those values. We also discuss the relationship between the discipline of political science and other social sciences and in particular law.

Readings:

  1. L.S. Rathore, S.A.H. Haqqi (2008) Political Theory and Organisation for law students, Eastern Book Company, Chapter 1
  2. A.C. Kapur, Principles of Political Science, S. Chand & Company Ltd, Chapter 1.
  3. W. Phillips Shively (2003), Power and Choice: An Introduction to Political Science. Chapter 1, (8th ed.) McGraw Hill.

WEEK II: IDEA OF THE STATE

The political organization of a body of people for the maintenance of order by coercion within its territory. The State has the power regulate all activities of individuals or organizations within its boundary. For this purpose, the state maintains a monopoly of the use of force within its boundaries. Max Weber emphasizes three aspects of the modern state – its territoriality, monopoly over physical coercion and its legitimacy.

The modern state is a form of political organization that evolved in Europe and was transmitted primarily through colonialism to other parts of the world. The idea of modern state can be traced back to the late medieval ages, especially in the writings of Nico Machiavelli, who is often credited with first using the concept of the state to refer to a territorial government in his work. However in the Indian context, Kautilya’s work on statecraft – Arthashastra - is considered a remarkable treatise on the state and its functions.

What is the relationship between national identity and state formation? Do people within a state share some commonality of language, religion, race, political values, attitude? A nation can be defined as a feeling of community among people who recognize that they are distinct from other communities and wish to control their own affairs. The entire population of a state may share the feeling of having a common past and a shared sense of the future – giving rise to the term nation state.

Readings:

  1. David Held (2000) Political Theory and the Modern State: Essays on State, Power and Democracy, Polity Press. Chapter 1.
  2. Aseem Prakash (1993) State and Statecraft in Kautilya's Arthasastra,Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.
  3. Benedict Anderson (1983) Imagined Communities, Verso

WEEK III: THEORIES ON THE EMERGENCE OF THE STATE

Political thinkers have discussed ideas on the origin of the state. Divine and force theories have focussed on the relationship between the ruler (the king/queen) and the ruled. The theory of social contract addresses the transition from a state of nature to a political society wherein persons enter into a contract by which they forgo certain individual liberties and submit to political authority to gain certain other advantages of becoming political citizens. Different political thinkers have conceptualised the state by highlighting specific characteristics of the modern state and their modes of functioning.

Readings:

  1. Rajeev Bhargava and Ashok Acharya (2008) (eds.). Political Theory: An Introduction, Pearson Longman – chapter 11.

WEEK IV: STATE SOVEREIGNTY

State Sovereignty : One of the primary attributes of the state is that it is autonomous to undertake any action within a specific territory. This political autonomy is referred to as sovereignty. Earlier the king was known as the sovereign – now the state is known as a sovereign entity. Different types of sovereignty include – political, popular and legal. Rights and duties (political obligations) is also discussed in this regard – with specific reference to Jean Bodin, Hugo Grotius, John Locke and Rousseau. Globalization has undermined the state sovereignty. Here we critically discuss the ideas of thinkers like Saskia Sassen, Arjun Appadurai and Stephen Krasner.

Readings:

  1. Rajeev Bhargava and Ashok Acharya (2008) (eds.). Political Theory: An Introduction, Pearson Longman – chapter 10
  2. Saskia Sassen (2003) Globalization or denationalization? Review of International Political Economy Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1–22
  3. Stephen D Krasner (2005) The Case for Shared Sovereignty, Journal of Democracy, Volume 16, No. 1, pp. 69-83.
  4. Nivedita Menon (1999)Book Review of Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization byArjun Appadurai, OUP, 1997. Indian Economic Social History Review, Volume 36, pp. 260.

WEEK V: TUTORIALS(Topics for Group Presentations will be discussed in Class).

WEEK VI and VII: LIBERALISM AND TOTALITARIANISM

Protection of liberty in terms of the individual rights has been the cornerstone of the theory of liberalism. The concept of liberty has three attributes – the notion of choice, the absence of constraints to exercise choice, and the existence of conditions to allow you to fulfil that choice. We will trace classical conceptions of liberalism and theories of neo-liberalism and link it with different theories of the role and function of the state in society. Totalitarianism stands on the other extreme, wherein state does not have any limits to its political authority, and it has control over all aspects of human activity in society.

Readings:

  1. Rajeev Bhargava and Ashok Acharya (2008) (eds.). Political Theory: An Introduction, Pearson Longman – chapter 15.
  2. David Held (2000) Political Theory and the Modern State: Essays on State, Power and Democracy, Polity Press. Chapter 8.
  3. Jeremy Waldron (1987) Theoretical Foundations of Liberalism, The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 147, pp. 127-150
  4. Alan Ryan (1993) Liberalism; pp. 291-311 in Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit (eds.): A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Blackwell.

WEEK VIII: SOCIALISM and MARXISM

Unlike individuals, the society or the polity is the cornerstone of socialism. This is in line with the utilitarian idea of greatest good for the greatest number of people. Socialism argues for a redistribution of wealth to benefit society as a whole rather than individuals who hold the wealth. The primary idea here is that individuals cannot prosper if society as a whole does not prosper – therefor individual achievement is intrinsically related and can only be sustained by growth of society as a whole. This would also mean that individual growth that negatively impacts the growth of other individuals in society will not be acceptable under socialism. Different strands of social thinking from Fabianism to guild socialism is discussed. The ideas of thinkers like Harold J Laski, Gandhi, Nehru and J P Narayan will be discussed.

Readings:

  1. Rajeev Bhargava and Ashok Acharya (2008) (eds.). Political Theory: An Introduction, Pearson Longman – chapter 16.
  2. Ralph Miliband (1995) Harold Laski’s Socialism, Socialist Register
  3. Judith M. Brown (1969) The Mahatma and Modern India, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 321-342
  4. David Held (2000) Political Theory and the Modern State: Essays on State, Power and Democracy, Polity Press. Chapter 5.
  5. Barry Hindess (1993) Marxism; pp. 312-332 in Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit (eds.): A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Blackwell.
  6. John Patrick Haithcox (1969) Left Wing Unity and the Indian Nationalist Movement: M. N. Roy and the Congress Socialist Party, Modern Asian Studies, 1969, Vol.3 No. 1, pp.17-56.

WEEK IX: UNITARY AND FEDERAL STATES

There are multiple ways to classify a government. One is the location and exercise of sovereign power. If the sovereign power is concentrated in the hands of one person, the government is despotic. If it is vested in the people, it is democratic. Unitary government means that power is centralized and authority flows from the central government. A federal government on the other hand functions on the basis of subsidiarity. Power is divided between the centre and the federal units.

Readings:

  1. L.S. Rathore, S.A.H. Haqqi (2008) Political Theory and Organisation for law students, Eastern Book Company.
  2. James Manor (1998) Making Federalism Work, Journal of Democracy, Vol.9 No. 3, pp.21-35.

WEEK X: PARLIAMENTARY AND PRESIDENTIAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT