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Ballb lecture notes sem 2 kslu syllabus
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Prepared by S.Premkumar Guest Lecturer in Political Science This material has been prepared keeping in mind specific student requirements, Nonetheless this material is not aimed to replace the standard prescribed textbooks on the given area, yet this avails itself as a quick reference to aid classroom discussions****.
State and Political Obligations Unit- I / Model Answers Define Political Obligation. Explain its kinds. Political obligation implies that as man is a political animal, he is bound to live under some authority and as such, it becomes his obligation to obey its commands. Hence when the authorizing rule is law, and the association of the state, we call its political obligation. According to Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy, Political Obligation is defined as a Moral duty to obey the laws of one’s own country or others Kinds of political obligation. Moral Obligation According to the moral principles of society in which he lives, the individual shall discharge certain obligations or duties. Serving old parents, helping poor people, helping injured person, showing kindness to the animals etc. are moral obligations. The state cannot punish any person, who violates moral obligations. Moral obligations left to the conduct of the people of their choice. Society is not competent to use any coercive power against the individual who is indifferent to his moral duties. Legal obligations Law regulates the social life of Men. The legal obligations take the form of a bond between the Individuals in a society for the performance of some act as desired by the enforcement of law. Legal obligations of the individuals are prescribed by the state. State will enforce the sanctions for the legal obligations. Moral obligation found its sanctions on individual conscience. The breach of moral rules requires voluntary and blame worthy conduct, but legal rules carries a force in it. If the legal duty is breached then the force carrying with such rules will act on the person. Positive obligation Positive obligations can be divided into Positive legal obligations and Positive moral obligation. Paying taxes or joining the army during national emergency is a “positive legal duty” and looking after one’s sick and old parents is a “positive moral obligations”. Negative obligations. Negative obligations are prescribed to call upon the individual not ot behave in a particular manner in the state or society. For example, legally the criminal shall not violate any civil or criminal law. He shall not encroach on the property of other or commit theft or murder.
The welfare state is a form of government in which the state protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of the citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for citizens unable to avail themselves of the minimal provisions for a good life.[1] Sociologist T. H. Marshall described the modern welfare state as a distinctive combination of democracy, welfare, and capitalism. Political obligations of a welfare state.
iii. Democratizing of rule making process by providing for “Consultation with dected interest” iv. Advantages of flexibility scope for experiments then the delegated legislation technique is employed. v. Further, socio-economic teams being experimental in Initial stages and practical difficulties at stage of implementation cannot be foreseen. vi. International Community: Delegated legislation is an effective instrument to bring about changes in domestic rules and regulations in accordance with changes that are taking place at global level. For ex., if a country signs a bilateral or a multilateral trees, the provisions of treaty should be incorporated in domestic laws. They do not require legislative approval because legislature already passed those treaties at policy level. vii. New Economic Issues: Executive has to take into consideration the changing global - economic environment and has to exploit the process of globalization to benefit the interests of country. For this it has to make necessary and continuous changes to rules and regulations so that they became simplified in nature and can help in enhance efficiency of bureaucracy. viii. Volatile Environment: Stable political economic and cultural environment do not require radical changes in rules and regulations. On the contrary, unstable conditions demand immediate and rapid changes! is can done only through the process of delegated. Volume of work with the legislature: Because of increasing complexity in nature of activities performed by government, legislation is overburdened with policy making. In order to reduce the burden it has been suggested that legislature can use the technique of delegate legislation to reduce burden on its shoulders. i. Advantages of Delegated legislation: i. It saves time for legislature. ii. It can be easily done in consultation with parties affected. iii. It allows for flexibility iv. Expert legislation v. Parliament is not always in session vi. Delegated legislation is resorted to encase of emergencies. vii. It can be used on an experimental basis. viii. Criticism of Delegated Legislation ix. i. It has long term bearing on legislative control. In a parliamentary form of democracy, legislature is the supreme organ of state because it consists of peoples’
The democratic messages of Greek city-states were almost buried in oblivion during the Roman period and middle ages. But the messages found a new lease of life in the hands of Rousseau (1712-1778). In recent years the scholars have interpreted Rousseau’s thought in different ways and at least on one message there is a broad-based agreement and it is liberty (freedom) is the most valuable and coveted thing. We feel that Rousseau is still remembered by the students of political science (other students of social sciences also read him seriously). But his theory of freedom is well-linked with two other concepts—rights and equality. It is especially evident in his open assembly concept wherever one participates. Origin of the Concepts: There is a famous comment of Prof. Ernest Barker. Once he said—Human consciousness postulates liberty, liberty involves rights and rights demand the state. Though this comment does not include equality we can unhesitatingly add equality to it. It is a common sense idea that without equality liberty cannot exist at all. Rights, liberty and equality are closely linked and work together. Though the historicity of the social contract theory is very often questioned by political scientists. The fundamental truth that comes out of the doctrine is that for greater amount of rights, liberty, equality and their protection the people of the state of nature decided to lay the foundation of civil body with a government whose chief function would be to provide protective net for the democratic principles. All the three exponents (Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) of the Social Contract did not conceal their view or motive. People of the state of nature spontaneously decided to set up civil society which implies that they had freedom and while making agreement or contract all of them were on the same footing. It means that all of them enjoyed equality and liberty. The concept of rights also comes out of the contract theory. How? When they took the decision there was no sign of resistance and by exercising their right to do anything for greater benefit. Hence it is quite manifest that Social Contract theory embodies these three principles of political theory. Purpose of the Three:
A close scrutiny of the three principles (many political scientists—as for example Barker— call rights, liberty and equality as principles of democracy) reveals that their purposes are same. The chief aims are the overall development of the inherent qualities of individuals and establish justice in the society. Laski’s definitions of rights and liberty are not very much different Defining rights he observes that rights are the condition of social life which is essential for the development of best self of a man. He calls liberty an atmosphere in which men will have the opportunity for the attainment of best selves. In the background of this we can reasonably say that rights and liberty are just two ways to reach the coveted goal for development of best selves How rights and liberties are protected? Laski has said that a state does not create rights, it simply recognizes them. Before the emergence or creation of state there existed rights. It is, so to say, the duty of the state is to protect the rights by enacting new laws or amending the old ones. It is to be noted here that not all rights come under the purview of the state because all the rights may not be conducive to the development of individuals’ personalities. The state is obliged (both legally and morally) to recognise those rights which are clearly helpful for the realisation of the best qualities of men. Naturally state shall proceed to their protection. Here we find that the state has a very crucial role in regard to the protection. Rights and liberties are not separate concepts. Since, liberty means the maintenance of an atmosphere in which men will have the scope to fulfill their good aim Viewed from this angle liberty can reasonably be regarded as the product of rights. He continues “without rights there cannot be liberty, because without rights, men are the subjects of law unrelated to the needs of personality”. Let us explain the relationship between rights and liberties in the following simple way. An individual has the right to pursue his own objective in his own way, to develop his noble qualities without doing any harm to others, to lead a good and peaceful life and many others. The point is, the individual concerned has rights to do all these. But rights alone are not sufficient. To have right and the scope for their implementation are two separate issues and need careful treatment. Laski and almost all political scientists are of opinion that rights require for them an atmosphere and this is liberty. So we can say that both rights and liberty are closely linked. To put it figuratively, they are the two sides of the same coin. The existence of rights practically will not carry any weight if they are not made to accompany liberty. Man can claim rights but, at the same time, he must have liberty to exercise right.
It will also lead to non-implementation of rights. However, it cannot be said definitely how much intervention by state will be helpful for rights and liberty. It depends on manifold factors. Our second point is. “The incidence of state action is unbiased”. The activities of the state must be impartial. Partiality will undoubtedly violate the basic norms of equality. Partiality means the abnegation of rule of law. Our practical experience teaches us different lesson. No state authority is hundred percent impartial. Assuming this situation, it has been suggested that the state should try to be impartial as far as practicable. Unit 3 BENTHAM’S UTILITARIANISM QUESTION FORMAT
Bentham used the word ‘utility’ as a synonym for the word ‘good’ or ‘value’. Everything that brings happiness is good and anything that does not bring happiness is not good. The desire of every individual is to be happy and pleasant. He likes happiness and dislikes happiness. By nature man is repulsive to sorrows and miseries. Everyone wants to be happy. Bentham says,” Utility is property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness of the greatest number”. He says, “ an adherent to the principle of utility holds the virtue to be a good thing by reasons only those of pleasures which result from the practice of it, he esteems vice to be a bad thing by reason only of the pains which follow in its train.” The doctrine of utility is therefore a hedonistic theory. When Bentham spoke of the good and bad consequences of an action, he only meant the happy or painful consequences of that action. PLEASURE-PAIN THEORY According to Bentham, human beings are creatures of feeling and sensibility. Reason is only a hand made of feeling or passion. All experiences are either pleasurable or painful. That action is good which increases pleasure, and decreases pain. That action is bad which decreases pleasure and increases pain. The yard stick to judging the goodness or badness of every individual’s actions is the pleasure-pain theory. Bentham borrowed the pleasure and pain principles from Helvetius. According to Bentham, “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of the sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand, the standard of right and wrong, and on the other hand, the chain of causes and effects are fastened to their throne. The principle of utility recognizes this subjection and assumes it for the foundation of that system, the object of which is to rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and law system which attempts to question it, it leads in sounds instead of senses, in caprice instead of reason, in darkness instead of light”. According to Bentham, everything was to be valued, adjusted and measured only in terms of pleasure and happiness. He says, “The principle of utility consists in taking as our starting point, in every process of reasoning the calculus of comparative estimates of pains and pleasures and in not allowing any other idea to intervene. An adherent to the principle of utility holds virtue to be a good thing by reason only of the pleasures which result from the practice of it; he esteems vice to be a bad thing by reason only of the pains which follows in train.” For Bentham a man should not only aim at his own happiness but at collective happiness of the greatest number of people. SOURCES OF PLEASURE OR PAIN Bentham lists out the following four sources of pleasure or pain:
accuracy and precision and to enable us to formulate rules encouraging one sort of behaviour and discouraging the others.
of the greatest member’ had been of immense value which helped to face the problems of his day and hold good even today. It has given the legislators somewhat a measuring rod by which they could judge the utility of a particular legislation. Though the utility cannot be measured cardinally, it can be measured ordinally. Bentham treated all problems from the utilitarian point of view and all his other theories, legal, political and social are but an extension of his ethical theory. He offered practical solutions to reform the English society. He applied the principle of utility to the question of property. He contended that property was an institution which brought happiness to its owner. To achieve the end of ‘greatest happiness of the greatest number’ required that the property be equally distributed among the people. But he did not want to take away the property right from its owners but he wanted to remove the disparity by imposing limitations on inheritance. In the words of Fredric Pollock, “The utilitarian principle was made a book to put in the nostrils of Leviathan than he may be tamed and harnessed to the chariot of utility”. Bentham, unlike the idealists and the collectivists, emphasized the view that the state exists for a man and not man for the state. This the correct view of the relations between the individual and the state. The interests of the individual are primary, for whose protection the state ushers into existence. FURTHER READING
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Unit 4 POWER QUESTION FORMAT
with how it is obtained, exercised and controlled. Power is often used to mean control, influence, authority, force, might and domination. Power is the crux of politics. Since, the beginning of humanity power has been occupying position. Power means the strength of the body and mind. In political science power means the power of a man over the mind and actions of other men. It is the ability to control the behaviour of others in accordance with one’s own intention. DEFINITIONS
differences in the role of power of a state in domestic affairs and international policies. In civil societies there exist a number of alternatives to violence. Realizing that all the relations cannot be regulated by physical strength alone, a system of general rules of procedures has been adopted by each society to redress the wrongs in a non-violent way. Individuals no longer have the right to take the law into their own hands. In international relations, due to lack of generally agreed upon rules and devices, the states have to protect their rights and to rectify injuries through the use of force. CONCLUSION Politics is nothing but the struggle for power. Politics has now changed from one of being ‘a study of state and government’ to that of being ‘a study of power’. Curtis says, “Politics is an organized dispute about power and its use involving choice among competing values, ideas, persons, interests, and demands. The study of politics is concerned with the description and analyses of the manner in which power is obtained, exercised, and controlled and the purpose for which it is used, the manner in which decisions are made, the factors which influence the making of those decisions, and the context in which those decisions take place.” FURTHER READING
Right to exercise powers, to implement and enforce laws; to exact obedience; to command; to judge; control over; and permission are synonymous with power. Authority is a person or persons, or a body exercising power of command as the civil and military authorities. Authority is the power or admitted right to command or act, whether original or delegated, as, the authority of a prince over subjects and of parents over children. Authority is a body having jurisdiction in certain matters of public nature. The word authority includes central and state governments. Authority means the institutionalized exercise of power backed by law or constitution and common consent. MEANING The word ‘authority’ is derived from the old Roman notion of ‘Auctor’ or Auctoritos’. The senate, the upper house in Rome gave its counsel to the popular assembly and this council was called ‘Auctor’ or Auctoritos’. Authority means the institutionalized exercise of legitimate power backed by law or constitution and common consent Although political power rests on the potentiality to invoke coercion, from historical days it has been found that coercion by way of threat of sanction is not an adequate instrument to elicit obedience. If the power is to subsist for long, it must receive general acceptance. Obedience may be obtained by the use of threat of sanctions, yet it rests upon a form of consent. It is this consent to or acceptance of power of the ruler by the ruled that strengthens the power and gives him the authority. Political authority is based on the acceptance of the right to rule. DEFINITIONS OF AUTHORITY
