KSLU Solved Question Papers
Political Science (Public Administration)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 4
2025 Jan Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 4 Political Science (Public Administration) 2025 Jan 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 2025 Jan examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2025 Jan examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2025 Jan 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 80 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note/problems is compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answer should be written either in English or 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)Discuss the meaning and principles of organization.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: meaning of organisation as structure and as process, with Mooney's and Barnard's definitions and Barnard's three elements; formal and informal organisation; the principles explained through one running example (a Deputy Commissioner's office): hierarchy with Fayol's "gang plank", unity of command with the Taylor exception, span of control with Graicunas's relationships and Urwick's figures, delegation, unity of direction, coordination, specialisation, decentralisation; criticism; a conclusion.
Meaning of organisation
The word organisation is used in two senses. As a structure, it means the framework of posts, ranks and relationships through which people work together. As a process, it means the act of arranging people and work into such a framework.
James D. Mooney defined it as "the form of every human association for the attainment of a common purpose". Chester Barnard, in 1938, called a formal organisation "a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons". Barnard said three things keep it alive: the ability to communicate, the willingness to serve, and a common purpose.
Every organisation has a formal side, which is the official chart of posts and rules. It also has an informal side: the friendships, groups and unwritten customs that grow among its people. The principles below are mainly about the formal side.
The principles, seen in a district office
Take the office of a Deputy Commissioner in Karnataka. It handles revenue, elections, disaster relief and many welfare schemes. Each principle of organisation can be seen working there.
1. Hierarchy (scalar principle). The office is arranged in ranks: Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioners, Tahsildars, Revenue Inspectors and village accountants. Authority and responsibility pass up and down this ladder step by step. Henri Fayol called it the scalar chain. He also saw its weakness. Two officers at the same level in different branches may need to deal with each other. If every message must go up and down the chain, work slows. Fayol allowed them to deal directly, using a "gang plank" between the two branches. Their superiors must authorise it, and the two must inform them at once of what they agree.
2. Unity of command. A village accountant should take orders from one superior, the Revenue Inspector, not from five officers at once. Conflicting orders confuse staff and destroy responsibility. Fayol treated this as a basic rule. He criticised F. W. Taylor's system of functional foremen. Under it a worker received orders from several specialist foremen, which Fayol saw as a negation of unity of command.
3. Span of control. The Deputy Commissioner cannot directly supervise every official in the district. He supervises a few officers, who supervise others. V. A. Graicunas, in a paper of 1933, showed why the span must be small. A superior with two subordinates must handle not two relationships but six, counting group and cross relationships between them. Lyndall Urwick drew the lesson. A superior with five subordinates who takes on a sixth gains 20 per cent in resources. But he adds about 100 per cent to the complexity of coordination.
4. Delegation. The Deputy Commissioner delegates powers to Assistant Commissioners and Tahsildars so that cases are decided near the people. He delegates authority but remains answerable for the district's administration as a whole.
5. Unity of direction. Fayol stated it as "one head and one plan for a group of activities having the same objective". All flood relief work in the district, for example, should run under one plan and one officer in charge.
6. Coordination. During elections, the revenue staff, the police, teachers and transport officials must act together. Mooney called coordination "the first principle of organization", because the other principles exist to produce it.
7. Specialisation. The office has separate sections for land records, elections, social security and disaster management. Each develops skill in its own work. Specialists such as engineers, doctors and statisticians serve in their own departments rather than as general clerks.
8. Decentralisation. Many functions have been moved to zilla, taluk and gram panchayats after the 73rd Amendment, which came into force on 24 April 1993. Decisions on local works are now taken closer to the villages.
Criticism of the principles
Herbert Simon, in "The Proverbs of Administration" (1946), argued that these principles often contradict one another. A small span of control, for instance, means more levels of hierarchy and slower work. The human relations writers followed the Hawthorne studies begun in 1924. They added that informal groups, morale and leadership shape an organisation as much as its chart. The principles are therefore guides to be applied with judgement.
Conclusion. Organisation is both the structure and the process by which people are arranged to achieve a common purpose, as Mooney and Barnard defined it. Its main principles are hierarchy, unity of command, span of control, delegation, unity of direction, coordination, specialisation and decentralisation. All of them can be seen at work in an ordinary district office. Simon and the human relations school showed their limits, but they still provide the framework of every government office in India.
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