MH SET Paper 2 Mock Test - 2 (Political Science) - MAHA TET MCQ

Friedrich August von Hayek, often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Anglo-Austrian economist and philosopher best known for his defence of classical liberalism. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal for his "pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena".

Both Assertion- In the advanced liberal democracies of the western nations, military is subordinate to the civilian authority and Reason- Military plays a key role in countries where democracy has not been institutionalized are correct but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998 and it entered into force on 1 July 2002. As of March 2019, 122 states are party to the statute.Among other things, the statute establishes the court's functions, jurisdiction and structure.

In the context of society today, the caste system and much that goes with it are wholly incompatible , reactionary, restrictive and barriers to progress. There can be no equality in status and opportunity within its framework,nor can there be political democracy....Between these two conceptions conflict is inherent and only one of them can survive.
-Jawaharlal Nehru(1946:257)

‘Social and political life’ is an integration of political science, economics and sociology though Political sciences, economics and sociology are three independent liberal sciences/disciplines having their own approaches to learning and understanding the contents.

To understand political science, one of the approaches is Legal-institutional approach

• This approach focuses on the formal apparatus of politics – government, institutions, constitutions and states.
• According to this approach, ‘a description and analysis of legal rules and conventions governing the operation and relationships between formal institutions, based on the readily accessible official sources and records, will provide valuable insight to make general conclusions about political activity’. 
• The functioning of Central and State Governments of India and the constitutional relationships and functioning among them can best be studied through this approach.
• This approach is criticized as static or lifeless, since it stresses the character of government at one fixed moment and neglects the fact that politics is an activity or a process.
• This approach fails to study underdeveloped and backward communities which don’t have formal institutions and political behaviour.
• This approach fails to study international politics since international politics mostly lacks formal institutions and is characterized by violence.

Hence, we conclude that the given statement is about legal institutional approach.

Collective responsibility is the bedrock principle of parliamentary government. The ministers are collectively responsible to the Parliament in general and to the Lok Sabha in particular (Article 75). Hence option A is correct.

The correct answer is Homi J Bhabha.

• Homi J Bhabha, the founder of India's nuclear programme, predicted that "nuclear technology will be highly important not only in the power industry but also for various societal uses aimed at improving life."
• India's nuclear programme dates back to March 1944, and its three-stage technological efforts were formed by Homi Jehangir Bhabha when he built the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, a nuclear research centre. 
• In 1956, India developed its first research reactor, and by 1964, it had completed its first plutonium reprocessing unit.

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who lived from 384 to 322 BC.

• He is considered one of the most influential thinkers in Western history, and his ideas about politics and government continue to be studied and debated today.
• In his book Politics, Aristotle argued that the ideal constitution is one that keeps the political elite in good moral shape and provides lasting political excellence.
• He believed that this could be achieved by a system of checks and balances, in which no one group or individual has too much power.
• He also believed that the political elite should be drawn from the middle class, as he believed that this group was most likely to be virtuous and wise.
• Aristotle's ideas about the ideal constitution have been influential in the development of Western political thought.
• His ideas about the importance of checks and balances and the need for a virtuous political elite can be seen in the constitutions of many modern democracies.

The correct option is Both Statements I and II are correct.

• The phrase "international political economy" (IPE) refers to the blending of politics and economics that occurs when people, commodities, services, money, ideas, and people cross international boundaries.
• Amid issues with the global economy and slow development in the third world, the term "international political economy" started to get the attention of academics in the middle of the 1960s.
• Theories of international political economy offer many solutions to the problem of significant system change that would affect who receives what, when, and how.
• By connecting political actors from different nations to international economic connections, they build on some of the ideas and theoretical frameworks of the many IR models. The latter, economic interactions, is based on markets, which serve as the hub for trading based on supply and demand.
• In the middle of the 18th century, in part as a reaction to mercantilism, the Scottish philosophers Adam Smith (1723) and David Hume (1711), as well as the French economist François Quesnay (1694), began to approach this study in a systematic rather than piecemeal manner. Political economy then became a distinct field of study.
  • They adopted a secular strategy, rejecting to interpret the distribution of wealth and power in terms of God's will instead citing intricate interplay among political, economic, technological, natural, and social forces.

Assertion and reasoning-type questions have one assertion (A) and one reason (R). We must first determine whether the statement is true. If the statement is true, we must next determine whether the reason correctly explains the assertion. 

First, we will consider the statement of Assertion:

• A state is a body of people that are politically organized, especially one that occupies a clearly defined territory and is sovereign.
• Civil society refers to space for collective action around shared interests, purposes, and values, generally distinct from government and commercial for-profit actors. It includes charities, development NGOs, community groups, women's organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, trade unions, social movements, coalitions, and advocacy groups.
• Democracy is a government in which power and civic responsibility are exercised by all adult citizens, directly, or through their freely elected representatives. Democracy rests upon the principles of majority rule and individual rights.

These statements emphasized that there is a need to create a democratic setup where political masters and civil society play an important role in a balanced manner. The execution of this idea is not easy and filled with challenges. 

Hence, the statement provided in the assertion is correct.

Now we will consider the statement of Reason:

• Criminalization of politics- When political or political powers are used by self-interest seeking a person for their personal gains or many more advantages such as a higher position in higher state administration which is normally not possible. So, basically, the criminalization of politics means using politics and political power for wrongful gain which is not legal.
• Political corruption is the use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain.
• Communalism refers to a politics that seeks to unify one community around a religious identity in hostile opposition to another community. Communal violence is a form of violence that is perpetrated across ethnic or communal lines, the violent parties feel solidarity for their respective groups, and victims are chosen based upon group membership.

Based on the above definition it can be figured out by both civil societies as well as political masters are vulnerable and can become prey to the Criminalization of politics, political corruption, and communal violence. Hence, it makes the possibility of creating a balance between political authority and civil society in a democratic society all the more challenging. An ideal value-based system can not be created in a democratic setup unless the above three menaces of society are rooted out.
Hence, the statement provided in the reason is also correct.
Conclusion: We can say that Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).

It is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic with a parliamentary system of government. The Republic is governed in terms of the Constitution of India which was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26th November, 1949 and came into force on 26th January, 1950.

Cumulative constitution is one which it is the result of gradual evolution

• Cumulative: The constitution is based on the collection of established customs, traditions, court actions, etc. over some period of time.
• Conventional: The constitution is created from the process of debate & deliberation intended to codify the founding ideals of a given society. An example of this would be the US Constitution.

If sound public opinion is to be formed for that it is essential that Press should be free.

First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) voting, also known as "choose-one voting," is an electoral system where voters select a single candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins the election. This system does not require an absolute majority, just a plurality, making it the system where the candidate with the most votes "first passes the post" to secure victory.

The correct answer is Political divisions in society.

This article proposes a new and better concept of civic culture and shows how it can benefit sociology. It argues that a better concept of civic culture gives us a stronger, comparative, and contextual perspective on voluntary associations—the conventional American empirical referent for “civic”—while also improving our sociologies of religion and social movements. The article first considers the classic perspective on civic culture and its current incarnations in order to show why we need better conceptual groundwork than they have offered. It then introduces the alternative approach, which is rooted in a pragmatist understanding of collective action and both builds on and departs in some ways from newly prominent understandings of culture in sociology. This approach’s virtues are illustrated with ethnographic examples from a variety of volunteer groups, social movement organizations, and religious associations.

The WTO Agreement envisages four specific situations involving voting: An interpretation of any of the multilateral trade agreements can be adopted by a majority of three quarters of WTO members.Formally, all of these councils and committees consist of the full membership of the WTO.

Primitive communism was a concept put forward by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who proposed that the traditional hunters and gatherers were based on egalitarian social relations and common ownership. A Marxist model socioeconomic society with primitive communism had no defined or hierarchical structure or capital.

Max Weber argued that the bureaucratic organizational form is characterized by six features: 1) Specialization and Division of Labor; 2) Hierarchical Authority Structures; 3) Rules and Regulations; 4) Technical Competence Guidelines; 5) Impersonality and Personal Indifference.

• The concepts of negative and positive peace in the field of Conflict and Peace Studies in International Relations have different connotations. 'Negative peace' is characterized by the absence of violence or the absence of war.
• It denotes situations where direct violence is not evident or no longer exists, but without necessarily solving the underlying reasons for the conflict.
• On the other hand, 'positive peace' refers to a more comprehensive, long-term, and sustainable form of peace, characterized by the presence of justice, equity, and structures that support peace .
• One of the classic real-world illustrations of 'negative peace' is the ongoing situation in the Korean peninsula. In this case, there is a noticeable absence of direct violent conflict due to the cease-fire agreement between North and South Korea.
• This cessation of hostilities is what identifies the situation as a state of 'negative peace.' It's essential to note, however, that a long-term resolution to the contentious issues causing the conflict in the Korean peninsula is still elusive, underlining the 'negative' aspect in this peace scenario .
• On the flip side, 'positive peace' is well-exemplified by the socially balanced welfare state models found in Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
• These nations have designed their socio-political models to ensure not only an absence of violent conflict but also a robust presence of social justice, equality, and structures that support and sustain peace. They transparently and effectively address structural and social inequities and have systems in place to maintain peaceful social order, demonstrating 'positive peace.'

• Article 39-A of the Indian Constitution "Equal justice and free legal aid” deals with Directive Principles of State Policy.
• Part IV of the Constitution from Articles 36 to 51 mentions the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSPs).
• The idea of DPSPs was borrowed from the Irish Constitution of 1937 by the framers of the Indian Constitution.

The correct answer is Women should be treated as rational human beings with equal social, economic, and legal rights as men. 

• Liberal feminists typically support laws and regulations that promote gender equality and ban practices that are discriminatory towards women.
• Liberal feminists see women should be treated as rational human beings with equal social, economic, and legal rights as men.
• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1799) represents the beginning of the liberal feminist movement.
• She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she makes the case that women need to be educated just as well as men so that they can grow up to be moral and autonomous human beings.

• Neo-liberalism is an ideology based upon a rethinking and a reassertion of classical liberalism. It emphasizes economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending to enhance the role of the private sector.
• Welfarism focuses on the welfare or well-being of the general public, typically via the provision of social support systems.
• Neo-functionalism is a theory of regional integration, representing a revival of functionalism in international relations theory.
• Neo-marxism is a school of economic thought which applies Marxist ideas to the present global economic conditions.

Ernest Barker has criticized Mill of inconsistencies in the doctrine of liberty. For Mill, the idea of liberty is absence of constraints or external interference. It means he views liberty in negative sense. Whereas, Barker is a positive liberal who does not have satisfaction with the concept of negative liberty. Mill is accused of giving the theory of liberty, which is relevant for abstract individual, individual of his imagination rather than the real individual.
Thus, option B is correct.

Democratization is the process of becoming a democracy. Democratic centralism is the Leninist organizational system in which policy is declared centrally and is binding to all members. Democracy consolidation is different from democratic transition. Democratic consolidation is a process which results in the maturity of the democracy. Conceptually, a country’s democracy is consolidated when there is no longer a chance that it will revert to authoritarianism. It includes the maturity of both democratic institutions and the society. The consolidation process entails a broader and complex process of institutionalization of the new democratic rules for political life.
Thus, option B is correct.

The Fabian Socialists believed that the state is an agency which can promote welfare of the people.

The correct answer is Dr. Rajendra Prasad.

• The aim of the constitution was to provide an 'appropriate ordering framework' for India.
• Dr. Rajendra Prasad equivocally expressed on the floor of the House-
  • "Personally, I do not attach any importance to the label which may be attached to it whether you call it a federal constitution or unitary constitution or by any other name. It makes no difference so long as the constitution serves our Purpose".

There are many schools of philosophy which are basically philosophical movements that determine an idea. It represents a broad view of many individual philosophers who may or may not agree. Some of the western schools of philosophy are Realism, idealism, pragmatism, naturalism, Marxism, etc.

The correct answer is Rajni Kothari.

The correct option is A.

• F.W Riggs is the most influential model-maker in comparative public administration is Riggs.
• The most significant individual contribution to comparative public management remains likely the Theory of Prismatic Society (1964) by Riggs.
• Professor Riggs used three analytical techniques to describe his managerial views.
• The ecological approach (ecological perspectives), structural-functional approach, and concept models are listed in that order (model-building).
• The ecological and structural-functional techniques have been successfully used by Fred Riggs to analyze societies and their governmental structures.
• The typology of "fused-prismatic-diffracted" societies, which was established in 1959, replaced his 1957 typology of "agrarian-transitia-industria" systems.
• The ecological approach looks at how an administrative system interacts with its surrounding environment.
• The empirical Approach gathers data and formulates a reliable outcome from it.
• But the comparative public administration approach is a type of Behavioral Approach as the focus of the behavioral approach is on "acts," exact scientific procedures of data collection and analysis, measurement, experimentation, testing, and verification, as well as a multidisciplinary attitude.
• The study of human behavior in administrative contexts is its main subject.

Hence, the correct option is Behavioral Approach.