Paper: IAS Mains Previous Year Paper Political Science (1988) 

Paper-I- Political Science-1988 (Mains)

SECTION A

1. Comment on any three of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) 'The law is reason unaffected by desire'. (Aristotle)
(b) It is not the priest that forgives the sin and remits the penalty to the sinner. God alone judges in these matters and the function of the priest is merely to certify the divine act. The priest is indeed the bearer of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, but he bears them in the capacity merely of turnkey-no wielder of jurisdiction but a humble serviter’. (Marsiglio of Padua)
(c) 'Wherever, therefore, any number of men so unite into one society as to quit everyone his executive power of the law of Nature and to resign it to the public, there and there only is a political or civil society’. (John Locke)
(d) 'We must "go among all classes of the population" as theoreticians, as propagandists, as agitators and as organisers'. (Lenin)

2. Compare some of the leading political notions of Kautilya and Machiavelli and explain how they helped the development of the social and behavioural sciences.

3. Describe the nature and scope of Political Science and distinguish between the earlier and recent methodological approaches in its study.

4. What are the different varieties of democratic systems? How and to what extent accountably of governments and legislatures to the electorate may be regarded as the essence of democratic government?

SECTION B

5. Comment on any THREE of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) Swadeshi is that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote'. (M.K. Ganddhi 1916)
(b) 'Terrorism is an outworn and profitless method for gaining political objectives and that it usually represents the infancy of a revolutionary urge in a country'. (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, 1935)
(c) '...... .[In India] new tensions are bound to arise as a result of the process of socio-economic development and modernization and also of the compulsions of electoral polities'.
(d) 'Any member of a political majority is relatively free to make his own contribution to its political action whereas the course of politics among a communal majority is influenced only
by those born into it'. (Dr. B. B. Ambedkar, 1955)

6. Indicate the issues of tensions and conflicts in the relationship between the Center and the States in India. How best could they be reconciled?

7. Account for the emergence of regional political parties in India, Do the activities of these parties affect communal harmony and national unity?

8. How does the Supreme Court of India function as the 'custodian of the Constitution' and 'Protector of the rights of the citizens'?

Paper-II- Political Science-1988 (Mains)

SECTION A

1. Comment on any three of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) Technology as an element of National Power.
(b) Non-State Actors in international relations.
(c) The concept of Cultural Diplomacy.
(d) Role of the International Court of Justice.

2. What is meant, by Realism in international politics? Examine critically the principal assumptions of the Realist Theory as developed by Hans J. Morgenthau.

3. Define Intervention and discuss the major avenues of intervention used by powerful States in the affairs of weaker States.

4. Distinguish between bilateral and multilateral foreign aid in terms of their consequences for the recipient nation. In what ways can foreign aid be used as an instrument of foreign policy?

SECTION B

5. Comment on any THREE of the following in about 200 words each:
(a) India's concern on developments in Afghanistan.
(b) India and the ethnic troubles in Sri Lanka.
(c) The problem of the Palestinians.
(d) Prospects of a Sino-Indian Rapprochement.

6. Explain the factors which led to the formation of the SAARC. Is it capable of playing an effective role for regional integration? Justify your answer with reference to the initiative so far taken by the SAARC.

7. 'We are a friend not only in fair weather but also in rough weather'. Comment on this statement of a distinguished Soviet leader in the light of the special relations that have developed between India and the Soviet Union.

8. Do you notice any major changes in the foreign policy of the Peoples Republic of China in the post- Mao period? Discuss in this connection the position taken by the PRC vis-a-vis the Super-Powers and the developing nations.