Question : Is multiculturalism a need of global society? Discuss.
(2015)
Answer : Integration of economies and society has made this world a global society. Technology, transportation and most importantly communication have allowed people and economies around the world to effectively and efficiently function as one big global society.
This global society is fraught with many problems apart from the opportunities it offered. In terms of economics, this phenomenon had brought new potentials for development and wealth creation. But alongwith this advantage it also carries social dimension as well, ....
Question : Evaluate the nature and functions of parliamentary democracy.
(2015)
Answer : A parliamentary democracy is a system of democratic governance of a state in which the executive branch derives its democratic legitimacy from, and is held accountable to the legislature (parliament); the executive and legislative branches are thus interconnected. In a parliamentary system, the head of state is normally a different person from the head of government. This is in contrast to a presidential system in a democracy, where the head of state often is also ....
Question : How are individual and group rights reconciled in democracy? Explain.
(2015)
Answer : All these recent decades are experiencing an uneasy equilibrium among three sets of rights—those of the individual, of heretofore disadvantaged groups, and of social institutions designed to serve a postindustrial society.
Conflicts over rights become settled, balancing these three sets of rights. No one of them has been chosen for preference by any society.
The rights of the individual at present favor the sociopolitical status quo. Those individuals who wage a successful campaign for their rights tend ....
Question : In what sense is democracy a better form of Government than theocracy?
(2014)
Answer : A theocracy is a form of government in which the policy is governed by divine intervention or divine guidance. Often, in a true theocracy, God is the actual head of state. In practice, due to communication problems, the actual laws and day to day governance are handled by divinely inspired prophets or clergy.
Essentially, a theocracy is a form of totalitarianism and authoritarianism so most arguments against those also hold. In the case of a theocracy, ....
Question : Is a democratic government better than a benevolent dictatorship? Give reasons for your answer.
(2013)
Answer : The reasons which are cited in support of democracy are based on equality, freedom, and justice. And, these three concepts are based on human ability to think and give rational and people-centric laws to govern themselves. In a democratic government everyone has a right to discuss, express and to argue. That means here, the spectrum of freedom is very wide. And, in a benevolent dictatorship it ends at the arbitrary power of one individual. Even ....
Question : Is a democratic government able to represent the interests of minority groups?
(2013)
Answer : A look on history can give us some examples of whether democratic government is able to represent the interest of minority groups or not. In U.SA. the voice of people hailing from Sub-Saharan African ancestry was heard, which probably ended the problem of racism. And, in South Africa the apartheid movement played a role in solving the similar problem.
And, a democracy provides a platform for every individual to have a say and fight for his/her ....
Question : What is meant by ‘democracy’? What are the various forms of democratic governments?
(2013)
Answer : Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination. And, most of the countries have a constitution asa guiding factor. Some forms of democracy are given below:
Direct democracy: Direct democracy only exists in the Swiss cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and
Glarus.
Representative democracy: ....
Question : In a Democracy does a citizen ever have the moral right to break a law? Discuss citizens right to civil disobedience.
(2011)
Answer : Freedom of speech and freedom of association are not mere abstractions or purposeless inanities. Collective action is implicit in these basic freedoms. In other words, there is no freedom to break law in the constitution but collective bargaining through various means for legitimate cause is best served by a creative combination of speech and association without breach of law and order of transgration of other people ‘s human rights. Once this prospective sanctioned by constitutional ....
Question : Is majority-rule meaningfully reflected in present-day democratic governments? Substantiate your answer with suitable example.
(2010)
Answer : Democracy is a political form of government in which governing power is derived from the people, by consensus (consensus democracy), by direct referendum (direct democracy), or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy. There is no specific universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’; equality and freedom have been identified as important characteristics of democracy. These principles are reflected in all citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to power. For ....
Question : “Democratic government claims to be promoting the principles of political philosophy of democracy.”
(2008)
Answer : Political philosophy can be defined as philosophical reflection on how best to arrange our collective life, our political institutions and our social practices, such as our economic system and our pattern of family life. Political philosophers seek to establish basic principles that will, for instance, justify a particular form of state, show that individuals have certain inalienable rights, or tell us how a society’s material resources should be shared among its members. This usually involves ....
Question : According to some Liberal Political thinkers social and economical inequalities can be justified only if they work to the advantage of the least advantaged members of society. Is this view consistent with Liberalism’s cardinal advocacy of individual freedom? Discuss.
(2007)
Answer : Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophies that consider individual liberty to be the most important political goal. Liberalism emphasizes individual rights and equality of opportunity. Within liberalism there are various streams of thought which compete over the use of the term “liberal” and may propose very different policies, but they are generally united by their support for a number of principles, including freedom of thought and speech, limitations on the power of governments, ....
Question : “Democracy, which treats everybody’s opinion, equally, is inefficient in determining the right thing to do”.
(2006)
Answer : Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system. Among political theorists, there are many contending conceptions of democracy. Aggregative democracy uses democratic processes to solicit citizens’ preferences and then aggregate them together to determine what social policies society should adopt. Therefore, proponents of this view hold that democratic participation should primarily focus on voting, where the policy with the most votes ....
Question : “Political democracy is hollow unless accompanied by power in the area of economics”.
(2005)
Answer : We may distinguish various forms of political power-sharing in History, which, schematically, may be classified as either democratic or oligarchic. In the former, political power is shared equally among all those with full citizen rights, whereas in the latter political power is concentrated, in various degrees, at the hands of miscellaneous elites.
In the political realm there can only be one form of democracy, what we may call political or direct democracy, where political power is ....
Question : “The concept of democracy is really contested concept”.
(2004)
Answer : An essentially contested concept is one where there is widespread agreement on an abstract core notion itself (e.g., “fairness”), whilst there is endless argument about what might be the best realization of that notion
There are several varieties of democracy some of which provide better representation and more freedoms for their citizens than others. However, if any democracy is not carefully legislated to avoid an uneven distribution of political power with balances such as the separation ....
Question : What do you mean by Sarvodaya? Consider in this connection the following statement of Mahatma Gandhi: “Every individual must have fullest liberty to use his talents consistently with equal use by neighbours, but no one is entitled to the arbitrary use of the gain from the talents. He is part of the nation or, say, the social structure surrounding him. Therefore, he can use his talents not for self but for the social structure of which he is but a part and on whose sufferance he lives.”
(2003)
Answer : Mahatma Gandhi is the unquestioned 20th century prophet of the world. His great concern for all the oppressed and depressed made him committed to serve these through his motherland. He started a good number of institutions to be manned by his chosen experts in their fields and gave them the perennial message of wiping every tear from Every Eye. He desired to establish Sarvodaya Samaj through granting power to the people at the grassroots so ....
Question : ‘In democratic state strike by government employees is unjustified’.
(2003)
Answer : Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal by employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilize the rule of a particular political party. Government employees become part of the government. Actually a democratic government is ruled by its executive body. The executive body does not ....
Question : Do you think that Democracy is the best form of government? Is there any scope of ‘Beyond Democracy’? In this context analyze the notion of Meritocracy.
(2002)
Answer : Democracy may be a word familiar to most, but it is a concept still misunderstood and misused in a time when totalitarian regimes and military dictatorships alike have attempted to claim popular support by pinning democratic labels upon themselves. Yet the power of the democratic idea has also evoked some of history’s most profound and moving expressions of human will and intellect: from Pericles in ancient Athens to Vaclav Havel in the modern Czech Republic, ....
Question : Explain the fundamental tenets of liberal democracy. Consider in this context this the extent to which justice, which is one of the basic ideals of liberal democracy, can be realized.
(2001)
Answer : Liberalism, as the name implies, is the fundamental belief in a political ideal where individuals are free to pursue their own goals in their own ways provided they do not infringe on the equal liberty of others. But what are the basic principles of liberalism and liberal democracy exactly, let us discus over here. Firstly, there is a commitment to fundamental human rights. Fundamental human rights, for example, are the right to human dignity, life, ....
Question : Idea of a democracy is paradoxical.
(2001)
Answer : Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system. In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all members of the society have equal access to power ....
Question : Liberal Democracy.
(1999)
Answer : The term “liberal” in “liberal democracy” does not imply that the government of such a democracy must follow the political ideology of liberalism. It is merely a reference to the fact that liberal democracies feature constitutional protections of individual rights from government power, which were first proposed during the Age of Enlightenment by philosophers advocating liberty. At present, there are numerous countries ruled by non-liberal political parties - for example parties that uphold conservatism, Christian ....
Question : Sarvodaya.
(1999)
Answer : Sarvodaya is a term meaning ‘universal uplift’ or ‘progress of all’. The term was first coined by Mohandas Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin’s tract on political economy, Unto This Last, and Gandhi came to use the term for the ideal of his own political philosophy. Later Gandhians, like the Indian nonviolent activist Vinoba Bhave, embraced the term as a name for the social movement in post-independence India which strove ....
Question : “Democracy is merely a form of government a way of life also”. Discuss.
(1997)
Answer : Democracy is more than a pattern of institutional behavior. It is an affirmation of certain attitudes and values which are more important than any particular set of institutions, for they must serve as the sensitive directing controls of institutional change. Every mechanism of democratic government has a critical point at which it may run wild. It may be formally perfect but actually murderous. For example, the principle of majority rule is a necessary condition of ....
Question : Bloodless revolution .
(1995)
Answer : A revolution is a fundamental change in power of organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. Usually there are two types of political revolution. One is complete change from one constitution to another and the second being the modification of an existing constitution. But both of these revolutions may take place without violence or without dropping a single drop of blood. Thus the bloodless revolution is characterized by a change ....
Question : Theocracy as a political ideology.
(1995)
Answer : Theocracy as a political ideology is based on the motion that divine power is the actual ruler of a state. In a theocratic form of government, a God or deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler. For believers theocracy is a form of government in which divine power governs an earthly human state, either in a personal incarnation or more often via religious institutional representatives, replacing or dominating civil government. Theocratic governments enact theonomic ....
Question : Ideas of Democracy.
(1995)
Answer : The term democracy has been in use in the tradition of western political thought since ancient times. It is derived from the Greek root demos which means ‘the people’; cracy stands for rule or government. Thus, literally democracy signifies the rule of the people. Its main ideals constitute equal participation by all freemen in the common affairs of the state which is regarded as an essential instrument of good life, general respect for law and ....