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Political Science (Theory and Thought)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 1
2012 Jun Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Political Science (Theory and Thought) 2012 Jun Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2012 Jun examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2012 Jun examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2012 Jun examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all questions. (2) One Essay type and one short note question from each Unit have to be attempted, which is referred as Part (a) and Part (b) in all the Units. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written either in English or in Kannada completely.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Define political science and explain its relations with other social sciences.[15]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the meaning of political science with the definitions of Garner, Janet, Seeley and Leacock; its subject matter and its claim to be a science; why it is linked to the other social sciences; its relations with sociology, history, economics, law, ethics, psychology and geography, giving for each both the link and the difference; a summary table; the value and the limits of these links; a worked example; and a conclusion.
Meaning of political science
Political science is the systematic study of the state and of government. It asks how states arise and how they are organised, how power is used and limited, and what the state ought to do.
- Garner: "political science begins and ends with the state."
- Paul Janet: it is "that part of social science which treats of the foundations of the state and the principles of government."
- Seeley: "political science investigates the phenomena of government as political economy deals with wealth, Biology with life, algebra with numbers, and geometry with space and magnitude."
- Leacock: "political science deals with government."
Seeley adds a historical point. Ancient political science, built on city-states, "was little more than the science of municipal government". Modern political science is "the science of the national country state".
Its subject matter
Garner sets out three fundamental problems of political science.
- The nature of the state, "as the highest political agency for the realization of the common ends of society", and the fundamental principles of state life.
- Political institutions: "an inquiry into the nature, history, and forms of political institutions".
- Laws of growth: a deduction from these, "so far as possible, of the laws of political growth and development".
Each of these problems reaches into a neighbouring subject. The first touches ethics and law, the second history, and the third sociology and economics.
A science among the social sciences
Can political science stand beside its neighbours as a science at all? Comte objected that there is "no consensus of opinion among experts as to its methods, principles, and conclusions". Pollock replied that the doubters had "a rather inadequate notion of what a science is". He added: "There is a political science in the same sense that there is a science of morals". Garner concludes that "both reason and the weight of authority justify the claim of politics to the rank of a true science". It is a social science, not an exact one, which is exactly why it must borrow from the other social sciences.
Why it is linked to other sciences
The state is made of people who also trade, worship, form families and hold beliefs. So the study of the state draws on every other study of social life. Janet said that political science is "closely connected with political economy or the science of wealth; with law, either natural or positive", "with history, which furnishes the facts of which it has need; with philosophy, and especially with morals". Garner adds that "the tendency of modern thought is to accentuate the relations instead of the differences."
1. Sociology
The link. Garner calls sociology "the fundamental social science" and says "the political is embedded in the social". Political institutions grow out of social groups, customs and classes.
The difference. Sociology studies society as a whole; political science "is concerned with one form only of human association, namely, the political". Its unit is the organised state, while sociology's unit is the individual as "a social creature".
2. History
The link. History supplies the facts that political science compares. Garner quotes Seeley: "history without political science has no fruit; and political science without history has no root."
The difference. Garner rejects Freeman's view that history is simply past politics. Much of history, such as that of art or dress, "has little, if any, relation to politics". Much political science is "purely philosophical and speculative". History asks what has been; political science also asks what ought to be.
3. Economics
The link. Economics began as a branch of statecraft. Sir James Stewart wrote in 1767: "What economy is in the family, political economy is in the state." Today, Garner says, "the activities and even the forms of government are profoundly influenced by, economic conditions", and "the solution of many economic problems must come through political channels."
The difference. Economics studies the production and distribution of wealth; political science studies power and authority. A tax is an economic fact in its effects and a political fact in its making.
4. Law
The link. Law is the will of the state expressed in rules. Janet links political science with law, "which occupies itself principally with the relations of citizens one to another". Constitutional law is the meeting point.
The difference. Jurisprudence studies the rules that courts enforce. Political science also studies the forces behind them: parties, opinion, interests and ideals.
5. Ethics
The link. Ethics, in Janet's words, "gives to it a part of its principles". Plato and Aristotle saw the state as existing for the good life.
The difference. Ethics judges conduct as right or wrong; political science describes institutions as they are and as they could be. Machiavelli's separation of politics from ethics shows that the two can be studied apart, though modern debates on rights and justice join them again.
6. Psychology
The link. Government rests on human behaviour: obedience, loyalty, fear, leadership and opinion. Bagehot explained that Cabinet government worked in England partly because it "was a deferential country".
The difference. Garner warned that the "so-called psychological method" had "been overexploited by a certain class of writers". Institutions and law also shape politics; the mind alone does not.
7. Geography
The link. Garner says that "Geographical situation and the shape and conformation of the territory, as well as extent of domain, have an important bearing upon the institutions and national life of the state."
The difference. Geography does not decide politics. Garner judged Montesquieu's estimate of climatic influence "greatly exaggerated".
Summary table
| Subject | What it gives political science | Where the two part |
|---|---|---|
| Sociology | The social roots of the state | Society as a whole against the political part |
| History | Facts for comparison | Past events against what ought to be |
| Economics | Economic causes of policy | Wealth against power |
| Law | The legal form of state power | Rules against the forces behind them |
| Ethics | Standards for judging the state | Right conduct against institutions |
| Subject | What it gives political science | Where the two part |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | Motives of obedience and opinion | The mind against institutions |
| Geography | Territory and resources | Physical setting against political choice |
Value and limits of these links
The value. Garner says we can no more understand political phenomena without the allied sciences "than we can comprehend biology without chemistry". Sidgwick, as Garner reports, held that each science gains by knowing "what elements of its reasonings it has to take from them and what in its turn it may claim to give them."
The limits. Each neighbour has tried to swallow political science: Marxists reduce politics to economics, and some writers explain everything by psychology or climate. Political science keeps its own subject, the state and government, while using the evidence of its neighbours.
A worked example: one problem, many sciences
An imaginary State plans to change its farm laws, and farmers protest. A political scientist studying the dispute needs every neighbouring science.
- History shows how earlier land and market laws were made and resisted.
- Economics shows how prices, debt and markets affect farmers' incomes.
- Sociology shows which castes, classes and regions the farmers come from, and how they organise.
- Law asks whether the State Legislature or Parliament has power over the subject under the lists of article 246.
- Psychology explains how protest spreads and why leaders gain followers.
- Geography explains why irrigated regions protest more than rain-fed ones.
- Ethics asks whether the change is just to small farmers.
The political scientist's own question remains political: who has the power to decide, by what process, and how should the state respond to its citizens?
Conclusion. Political science is the study of the state and government, in Garner's words a study that "begins and ends with the state". It is linked to sociology, history, economics, law, ethics, psychology and geography, from which it draws facts, causes and standards. Yet each link has a limit, and political science remains a distinct science with the state as its own field.
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