IAS Political Science and International Relations

Paper-I Political Theory and Indian Politics
Section-A
1. Approaches to the study of political theory: historical, normative and empirical.
2. Theories of state: Social contract, Liberal, Neo-liberal, Marxist, communitarian, postcolonial.
3. State Sovereignty: Marxist and pluralistic theories; globalisation and the State.
4. Democracy and Human Rights: Democratic theory-classical and contemporary. Theories
of Human Rights; Theories of Justice, Equality and Revolution, political obligation; New
Social Movements.
5. Theories of Political Culture; Culture and politics in Third World countries.
6. Theories of Political Economy: Classical and contemporary.
7. Political Ideologies: Nature of Ideology; Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism,
Gandhism and Anarchism.
8. Theories of Power and Hegemony: Pareto, Mosca, Mitchels, C. Wright Mills, Weber,
Gramsci, Hannah Arendt.
9. Indian Political Thought: Manu, Kautilya M.N. Roy Gandhi Ambedkar and E V
Ramswami Naicker.
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10. Political Thought: Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, J S Mill, Hegel and Marx, Lenin,
Rosa Luxemberg and Mao Zedong.
Section-B Indian Government and Politics
1. Indian Nationalism: Dadabhai Naoroji, Tilak, Savarkar, Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narain,
Nehru, Subhas Bose, Ambedkar, Ram Manohar Lohia.
2. Nature and struggle of Indian freedom struggle: From constitutionalism to Mass
Satyagraha, Revolutionary movements Non Co-operation, Civil disobedience and Quit
India, Indian Naval uprising, Indian National Army; role of women in freedom struggle.
3. Socio- economic dimensions of the nationalist movement: The communal question
and the demand for partition; backward caste movements, Trade union and Peasant
movements, Civil rights movement.
4. Landmarks in Constitutional Development during British Rule: Morley-Minto Reforms;
Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms; Simon Commission; Government of India Act, 1935; Cripps
Mission: Indian Independence Act, 1947.
5. Salient Features of the Indian Constitution: The Preamble, Fundamental Rights and
Duties, Directive Principles; federalism, parliamentary system; amending procedures;
judicial review.
6. The Executive System in theory and practice: President, Prime Minister and the Council
of Ministers; Governor, Chief Minister and the State Council of Ministers. The Bureaucracy.
7. Role and function of the Parliament and Parlimentary Committee: Lok Sabha and
Rajya Sabha; changing socio economic profile.
8. The Supreme Court and the High Courts; Judicial Activism; PIL.
9. Statutory institutions/commis sions-UPSC, Election Commission, Comptroller and
Auditor General, Backward Classes Commission, National Commission for women;
National Human Rights Commission; Minorities Commission.
10. Party system: ideology and social base of parties; fragmentation and regionalisation.
Pressure groups; patterns of coalition politics; trends in electoral behaviour.
11. Class, caste, ethnicity and gender in Indian politics; politics of regionalism, communalism,
backward class and Dalit movements, Tribal people movements, struggle for gender
justice.
12. Planning and Economic Development : Role of the Planning Commission; Planning in the
era of liberalisation; political dimensions of economic reforms.
13. Grassroots democracy: Panchayati Raj and municipal government; significance of 73rd
and 74th Amendements. Grass root movement and women's empowerment.
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Paper – II Comparative Politics and International Relations
Section-A
Comparative Analysis and International Politics
1. Approaches to the study of comparative politics: traditional approaches; political
economy, political sociology or political system approaches; Nature of political process in
the Third World.
2. The Modern State: Evolution, the contemporary trends in the advanced industrial
countries and the third world.
3. Development: Strategies and contemporary discourse.
4. Concepts of International politics: Power, national interest, balance of power, national
security, collective security and peace.
5. Theories of International politics Marxist, Realist, Systems, Decision-making and Game
Theory.
6. Determinants of foreign policy: Domestic compulsions, geopolitics, geoeconomics and
global order.
7. Origin and contemporary relevance of the Cold War, nature of the post-cold war global
order.
8. Major issues of world politics : Cuban Missile Crisis; Vietnam War, Oil Crisis, Afghan Civil
War, Gulf War, Collapse of the Soviet Union, Yugoslav Crisis.
9. Non-alignment : Concept and movement; Third World Movements for global justice, Nonalignment
in the post cold war era.
10. The evolution of the international economic system-from Bretton woods to WTO, the
North-South dimension.
11. International organisations UN and its specialized agencies: International Court of
Justice; ILO, UNICEF, WHO UNESCO.
12. Regional, organizations such as the ASEAN, APEC, EU, SAARC, NAFTA
13. Contemporary Global Concerns: Democracy, Human Rights, Ecology, Gender Justice,
Global commons, Communication.
Section-B
India and the World
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1. Indian Foreign Policy: Historical origins, determinants; the institutions of policy-making;
continuity and change.
2. India and the Non-Alignment Movement: Evolution and contemporary relevance. Sociopolitical
basis of non-alignment-domestic and global.
3. Major issues in Indian foreign policy : Sino-Indian Border War (1962); Indo-Pakistan War
(1971) and the liberation of Bangladesh; IPKF in Sri Lanka; India as military nuclear power
(1998).
4. Conflict and co-operation in South Asia: India's relations with Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh, Nepal. Regional co-operation and SAARC. Kashmir question in India's
foreign policy.
5. India's relation with Africa and Latin America.
6. India and South East Asia; ASEAN.
7. India and the major powers : USA, EU, China, Japan and Russia.
8. India and the UN System: India's role in UN Peace Keeping and global disarmament.
9. India and the emerging international economic order; multilateral agencies-WTO, IMF,
IBRD, ADB.
10. India and the question of nuclear weapons: NPT and CTBT.