NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY ODISHA
Introduction to Politics
SEMESTER I: B.A.L.L.B
COURSE OUTLINE
Introduction to Politics
(POLITICAL SCIENCE-I)
Course designed by
Dr. Suvrashree Panda
Course Instructor
Miss Aparna Parida
Assistant Professor of Political Science,
National Law University Odisha
Course overview:
Considering the close connection between Law and Political Science, this course aims
to provide students with a solid foundation in political science, helping them to understand the
political context within which legal systems function. This course offers systematic reflection
on the study of political science by giving broad introduction of range of topics covered in
political science. It seeks to discuss edges as well as cores of political science, and its
emphasis on implication of politics in the day-to-day life. This course intends to ensure a firm
grasp of the basics of political science while being given a sense of enduring debates in the
field of politics. The topics and questions of political theory covered in this course are not
independent of one another rather they are thematically connected with each other.
.
• The primary objective is to grasp students with the meaning of various concepts like
state, sovereignty, justice, liberty, equality, rights, law and democracy.
• Secondly, assess how global, national and regional developments affect society and the
political situation of the country on the basis of political principles. It will enable
students of B.A.L.L.B. to assess and interpret reasons in the light of concepts and
principles offered by political science.
• This course seeks to provide a deep learning of the key concepts of Political theory. •
Another important objective is to instill value of interdisciplinary study.
• Students should be able to comprehend the various dimensions of each of these
concepts.
Unit content:
Unit-I: Understanding Politics
• What is politics?
• What is the Nature of Politics?
• Politics and political
• Different perspective on politics: Marxist, Liberal,
• Politics as power: traditional view of power, types of authority Foucault’s
view on power
• Linkages between law and politics
• Women and Politics: Feminism, Concept of structural and cultural violence
• Summary
Exercises
:
Suggested video links:
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Suggested reading
• Leftwich, Adrian, What is Politics (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2005)
• Heywood, Andrew and Clayton Chin, Political theory ( New York, Palgrav, 2023) •
Heywood, Political Ideas and Concepts: An Introduction, 1994
• Carl Schmitt, The concept of the Political, (University of Chicago Press,
2007) \
Unit II: State and sovereignty
• State: meaning and Elements
• Justifying the state
• Theories of state: social contract theory (Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau ), divine
origin theory, Evolutionary theory
• Perspective on state:
• Neutral state: liberal
• The class state Marxist
• Fascist State
• Developmental state
• Sovereignty: Meaning and types
• Different perspectives: pluralistic, Monistic
• Challenges to the sovereignty of the state: globalization, international law,
international organization
• Exercises
Suggested video links:
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Suggested Readings:
• Ramaswamy, Sushila, Political Theory: Ideas and Concepts (Delhi, Macmillan, 2003) •
Asirvatham Addi, Political Theory (New Delhi, S. Chand and Co. 1988) • MacIver,
R.M, The Modern State (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1926)
UNIT III: : Political ideologies Comparing different Political Ideologies
• Libertarianism
• Liberalism,
• Socialism
• Marxism,
• Gandhism
• Feminism
• Ambedkarim
• postmodernism
• Summary
• Exercises
Suggeted video Links:
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Q Suggested readings:
• Aan Finlayson (ed.), Contemporary Political Thought: A Reader and Guide,
Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press, 2003, 29-68
• Adam Swift, Political Philosophy: A Beginners’ Guide for Students and Politicians,
2001,
• Amartya Sen, ‘Equality of What? in his Inequality Re-examined, 1992 •
Andrew Heywood, Political Theory: An Introduction, New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2004.
• Asirvatham Addi, Political Theory (New Delhi, S. Chand and Co. 1988) •
Heywood, Political Ideas and Concepts: An Introduction, 1994
• White, S.K and J. Donald Moon, What is Political Theory (New Delhi, Sage
publication)
Unit IV: Liberty
• Liberty: what is liberty
• Negative liberty and Positive liberty
• Mill’s conception of self-regarding and other regarding
• Hayek’s view
• Recent debates in liberty
• Landmark cases:
• Exercises
Suggested video Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTy0TlcgGm4
Suggested Readings:
• Heywood, Political Ideas and Concepts: An Introduction, 1994
• Smits, K. (2009). ‘Should Offensive Speech be Regulated?’, In Applying Political
Theory: Issues and Debates. Palgrave Macmillan, PP. 152-170.
• Gautam Bhatia, Offend, Shock, or Disturb: Free Speech Under the Indian Constitution. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press.
2016. • Rajiv Bhargabha’ sbook
Unit description V: Rights and Citizenship:
• Meaning of rights
• Rights, claims and powers
• Nature of rights
• Hunan Rights
• Rights of the refugees
• Theory of Rights: Natural rights, Historical Theory rights, Theory of legal rights,
social welfare theory of rights, Marxist theory of rights, Laski’s theory of rights
• Rights and Citizenship: Issues and Debates:
• Overview of Landmark cases:
• Summary
• Exercises
Suggested video Links:
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Suggested readings
• Bhargava, Rajeev. Political Theory: An introduction (Pearson, 2016)
• Dworkin, Ronald Taking rights seriously
• Chandhoke , Neera . Beyond secularism: the rights of religious minorities (oxford
university press, 1999)
• Kymlicka, Will. Liberalism, community and Culture(Oxford University press, 1989
UNIT V: Concept of Equality:
• Introduction
• Equality vs. Inequality
• What is Equality?
• Equality: Equality of Wealth, Welfare, capabilities,
• Relation of Equality with Liberty and Justice
Suggested video Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjma15Rng_Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMsisVchT0s
Suggested Readings
• Heywood, Political Ideas and Concepts: An Introduction, 1994
• Hobbes, Leviathan (ed) R-Tuck, Cambridge, (Cambridge University Press, 1991) •
Marx, K.H, The Communist Manifesto C Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1975)
Publications, 2004)
• Ramaswamy, Sushila, Political Theory: Ideas and Concepts (Delhi, Macmillan,
2003)
• Tansey, S.D., Politics: The Basics (London, Routledge, 2000)
• Casal, P. William, A.(2008), Mc Kinnon, C(ed), Issues in Political Theory, New York:
Oxford University Press, pp. 149-165
Unit VI: Justice
• The idea of justice: Procedural Justice and Substantive Justice
• Rawls’s Liberal-Egalitarian Principles of Social Justice
• Ambedkar’s ideas
• Summary
• Landmark cases:
• Exercises
Bhargava, R. and Acharya, A. (eds.) Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson
Longman, pp. 74-82.
Sandel Michael J. 2009. Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
