UNIVERSITY OF PUNE
Ganeshkhind, Pune-411007
Maharashtra State Eligibility Test for Lectureship
Conducted by University of Pune
(AS THE STATE AGENCY)
SYLLABUS AND SAMPLE QUESTIONS - Political Science
Subject Subject
Code No.
15 Political Science
[15] : POLITICAL SCIENCE
(OLD NAME : POLITICS)
SYLLABUS AND SAMPLE QUESTIONS
NOTE : STRUCTURE OF PAPER II AND REVISED STRUCTURE OF PAPER III PLEASE
SEE PAGE NUMBER ONE.
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, Locke, Rousseau.
European Thought-II : Bentham. J. S. Mill, Hegel, 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, Ambedkar,
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.
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Political Development and Political Modernization.
Political Culture, Political Socialization and Political Communication.
Political Elite; 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 ministers 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.
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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 Ideology 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 settelment 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, Treaty 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, Objectives, 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 : Leniu, Mao, Gandhi
Unit—II
Political Thought
Plato and Aristotle
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Machavelli
Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and J. S. Mill
Karl Marx
Gandhi, M. N. Roy, Aurobindo Ghosh
Unit—III
Comparative 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 and Regional Issues, Problems of Nation-Building and Integration
Unit—VII
Growth of public Administration as a discipline: and New Public Administration Theories of
Organisation (Classical, Scientific, Human Relations): Principles of Organisation.
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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.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
PAPER—II
1. Voting behaviour means
(A) The voters do not behave properly at the time of elections.
(B) Study of the factors that Influence the choice of the voters.
(C) Study of those voters who do not vote for the ruling party.
(D) Study of the phenomenon of bandwagon effect.
2. Your State Government wants to nationalise the private transport companies and create
a public corporation.
Which of the following step will be the first condition for its creation ?
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(A) Order of Governor for the appointment of the Chairman.
(B) Creation of a fund for the purpose.
(C) Make it a juristic personality.
(D) Pass a law defining the field of autonomy.
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