Meghalaya Public Service Commission Syllabus 2021

The Meghalaya Public Service Commission is the State Public Service Commission is provided under Article 315 read with Article 316 of the Constitution of India. Here is a Detailed Syllabus for MCS & MPS Main Exam Optional Paper - Political Science and International Relations.

MCS & MPS Mains Syllabus

Optional Paper - Political Science and International Relations

Paper‐I

Political Theory and Indian Politics

Section‐A

Approaches to the study of political theory : historical, normative and empirical.
Theories of state : Social contract, Liberal, Neo‐liberal, Marxist, communitarian, post‐colonial.
State Sovereignty : Marxist and pluralistic theories; globalisation and the State.
Democracy and Human Rights : Democratic theory‐classical and contemporary. Theories of Human Rights; Theories of Justice, Equality and Revolution, political obligation; New Social Movements.
Theories of Political Culture; Culture and politics in Third World countries.
Theories of Political Economy – Classical and contemporary.
Political Idealogies : Nature of Idealogy; Liberalism, Socialism. Marxism, Fascism, Gandhism and Anarchism.
Theories of Power and Hegemony : Pareto, Mosca, Mitchels, C. Wright Mills, Weber, Gramsci,
Hannah Arendt.
Indian Political Thought: Manu, Kautilya M.N. Roy Gandhi Ambedkar and E.V. Ramswami Naicker.
Political Thought : Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, J.S. Mill, Hegel and Marx, Lenin, Rosa Luxemberg and Mao Zedong.

Section‐B

Indian Government and Politics

Indian Nationalism : Dadabhai Naoroji, Tilak, Savarkar, Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narain, Nehru, Subhas Bose, Ambedkar, Ram Manohar Lohia.
Nature and struggle of Indian freedom struggle : From constitutionalism to Mass Satyagraha, Revolutionary movements Non Co‐operation, Civil disobedience and Quit India, Indian Naval uprising, Indian National Army; role of women in freedom struggle.
Socio‐economic dimensions of the nationalist movement : The communal question and the demand for partition; backward caste movements. Trade union and Peasant movements, Civil Rights movement.
Landmarks in Constitutional Development during British Rule : Morley‐Minto Reforms; Montagu‐ Chelmsford Reforms; Simon Commission; Government of India Act, 1935; Cripps Mission : Indian

Independence Act, 1947.

Salient Features of the Indian Constitution: The Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties,

Directive Principles; federalism, parliamentary system; amending procedures; judicial review.

The Executive System in theory and practice : President, Prime Minister and the Council of

Ministers; Governor, Chief Minister and the State Council of Ministers. The Bureaucracy.

Role and function of the Parliament and Parliamentary Committee‐Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha; changing socio economic profile.
The Supreme Court and the High Courts; Judicial Activism; PIL.
Statutory institutions/commissions – UPSC, Election Commission, Comptroller and Auditor

General, Backward Classes Commission, National Commission for women; National Human Rights

Commission; Minorities Commission.

Party system : ideology and social base of parties; fragmentation and regionalisation. Pressure groups; patterns of coalition politics; trends in electoral behaviour.
Class, caste, ethnicity and gender in Indian politics; politics of regionalism, communalism, backward class and Dalit movements, Tribal people movements, struggle for gender justice.
Planning and Economic Development : Role of the Planning Commission; Planning in the era of liberalisation; political dimensions of economic reforms.
Grassroots democracy : Panchayati Raj and municipal government; significance of 73rd and 74th

Amendments. Grass root movement and women’s empowerment.

Paper‐II

Comparative Politics and International Relations

Section‐A

Comparative Analysis and International Politics

Approaches to the study of comparative politics : traditional approaches; political economy, political sociology or political system approaches; Nature of political process in the Third World.
The Modern State : Evolution, the contemporary trends in the advanced industrial countries and the third world.
Development : Strategies and contemporary discourse.
Concepts of International politics : Power, national interest, balance of power, national security, collective security and peace.
Theories of International politics Marxist, Realist, Systems, Decision‐making and Game Theory.

Political Science and International Relations

Determinants of foreign policy : Domestic compulsions, geopolitics, geoeconomics and global order.
Origin and contemporary relevance of the Cold War, nature of the post‐cold war global order.
Major issues of world politics : Cuban Missile‐Crisis; Vietnam War, Oil Crisis, Afghan Civil War,

Gulf War, Collapse of the Soviet Union, Yugoslav Crisis.

Non‐alignment : Concept and movement; Third World Movements for global justice, Non‐alignment in the post cold war era.
The evolution of the international economic system – from Bretton woods to WTO, the North‐South dimension.
International organisations UN and its specialised agencies : International Court of Justice; ILO,

UNICEF, WHO, UNESCO.

Regional, organisations such as the ASEAN, APEC, EU, SAARC, NAFTA.
Contemporary Global Concerns : Democracy, Human Rights, Ecology, Gender Justice, Global commons, Communication.

Section‐B

India and the World

Indian Foreign Policy : Historical origins, determinants; the institutions of policy‐making; continuity and change.
India and the Non‐Alignment Movement : Evolution and contemporary relevance. Socio‐political basis of non‐alignment‐domestic and global.
Major issues in Indian foreign policy : Sino‐Indian Border War (1962); Indo‐Pakistan War (1971) and the liberation of Bangladesh; IPKF in Srilanka; India as military nuclear power (1998).
Conflict and co‐operation in South Asia : India’s relations with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,

Nepal. Regional co‐operation and SAARC. Kashmir question in India’s foreign policy.

India’s relation with Africa and Latin America.
India and South East Asia; ASEAN.
India and the major powers : USA, EU, China, Japan and Russia.
India and the UN System : India’s role in UN Peace Keeping and global disarmament.
India and the emerging international economic order; multilateral agencies – WTO, IMF, IBRD, ADB.
India and the question of nuclear weapons : NPT and CTBT.