1. Marx's concept of 'alienation' is an essential part of the reality in capitalism. Explain. [200words, 15marks] [2021]
2. Comment on: J.S. Mill's idea on women suffrage. [150words, 10marks] [2021]
3. Explain the Aristotelian view of politics. To what extent do you think it has contributed to the development of modern-day Constitutional democracies? [250words, 20marks] [2021]
4. Trace the evolution of Western Political Thought from ancient to contemporary period. [250words, 20marks] [2020]
5. Comment on Machiavelli's secularism. [150words, 10marks] [2020]
6. Discuss Karl Marx's concept of class. [200words, 15marks] [2020]
7. Explain Aristotle's critique of Plato's Idealism. [250words, 20marks] [2019]
8. According to Gramsci, 'hegemony is primarily based on the organisation of consent.' Comment. [250words, 20marks] [2019]
9. Critically examine Hannah Arendt's conceptual triad of labour, work and action. [250words, 20marks] [2019]
10. Comment on: John Stuart Mill is a 'reluctant democrat' - (C. L. Wayper). [150words, 10marks] [2018]
11. John Locke is the father of liberalism. Explain. [250words, 20marks] [2018]
12. Critically examine Machiavelli's views on religion and politics. [200words, 15marks] [2018]
13. Everywhere, inequality is a cause of revolution- Aristotle. Comment. [200words, 15marks] [2017]
14. Comment on Hobbesian notion of political obligation. [150words, 10marks] [2017]
15. Differentiate between freedom and liberty. Discuss Marx's notion of freedom. [200words, 15marks] [2017]
16. How would I and my fellow human beings behave if we were to find ourselves in a state of nature, and what does this behaviour tell us about our innate predispositions? Thomas Hobbes. Discuss. [150words, 10marks]
[2016]
17. Explain Marx's understanding of human essence and alienation. [200words, 15marks] [2016]
18. Comment on Gramsci's concept of hegemony. [150words, 10marks] [2016]
19. Discuss Hannah Arendt's analysis of the role of ideology in the modern totalitarian regime. [250words, 20marks] [2016]
20. 'Plato was an enemy of the open society'. (Popper). Comment. [250words, 20marks] [2015]
21. Compare and contrast the views of Kautilya and Machiavelli on Statecraft. [200words, 15marks] [2015]
22. Comment on Aristotle's conception of equality. [150words, 10marks] [2015]
23. Discuss Gramsci's notion of 'organic intellectuals'. [200words, 15marks] [2015]
24. Discuss the relationship between base and superstructure in Marxist theory. [200words, 15marks] [2015]
25. Comment on: "Power is never the property of an individual; it belongs to a group and remains in existence only so long as the group keeps together.' (Hannah Arendt). [150words, 10marks] [2014]
26. Explain how Machiavelli's application of empirical method to human affairs marks an important stage in the evolution of political science. [250words, 20marks] [2014]
27. Central to Aristotle's political thought is his classification of the different types of political constitutions in the Politics. Evaluate. [200words, 15marks] [2014]
28. Discuss, 'All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility' (JS Mill). [150words, 10marks] [2014]
29. Comment: 'Covenants without swords are but words and of no strength to secure man at all'. Hobbes. [150words, 10marks] [2013]
30. Comment on the assertion of Laslett that Filmer and not Hobbes was the main antagonist of Locke. [200words, 15marks] [2013]
31. Explain, as per Gramsci, the distinction between hegemony and domination. [200words, 15marks] [2013]
32. Comment on: "Personal is political". [150words, 10marks] [2013]
33. Hannah Arendt's conception of the 'political. [150words, 10marks] [2012]
34. Draw parallels between 'Arthashastra' tradition and the ‘Realist’ tradition represented by Machiavelli. [250words, 20marks] [2012]
35. ‘Locke is an individualist out and out.’ Substantiate this statement. [250words, 20marks] [2012]
36. Comment on; "The State is a creation of nature and man is by nature a political animal." (Aristotle). [200words, 20marks] [2011]
37. Discuss Hobbes as an individualist. [150words, 15marks] [2011]
38. It is said where there is no law there is no liberty. Give your views on this statement. [ 30marks] [2011]
39. “The worth of a State... Is the worth of individuals composing it.” (JS Mill) . Comment. [150words, 15marks] [2011]
40. Comment on: Western thought, one might say, has been either platonic or anti platonic but hardly ever non-platonic (Popper). [200words, 20marks] [2009]
41. Compare and contrast Kautilya and Machiavelli on statecraft. [200words, 20marks] [2009]
42. Examine in detail Marx's prescription for ending alienation and reaching the stage of de-alienation. [60marks] [2009]
43. “The great and chief aim of men's uniting into a Commonwealth and putting themselves under Government is the preservation of property.” (Locke) . Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [2008]
44. Critically examine Gramsci's concept of Hegemony. [60marks] [2008]
45. Comment on; Plates communism is a supplementary machinery to give effect to and reinforce that spirt which education is create (Nettleship). [200words, 20marks] [2007]
46. Discuss the importance of Machiavelli in the history of political thought. Is it correct to say that Machiavelli's theory is narrowly local and narrowly dated? [200words, 60marks] [2007]
47. Comment on: State is individual writ large (Plato). [200words, 20marks] [2006]
48. Attempt a critique a Aristotles ideas on slavery. [200words, 60marks] [2006]
49. "…. that the anatomy of this civil society, however, has to be sought in political economy" (Marx). Comment. [200words, 20marks] [2006]
50. Comment on: The State is Individual writ Large (Plato). [200words, 20marks] [2005]
51. Comment on: The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self protection (J S Mill). [200words, 20marks] [2005]
52. The root of politics, according to Marx, does not lie in the state; it lies in the social conditions underlying this institution, that is, in the material conditions of life as reflected through the mode of production. Comment. [60marks] [2005]
53. Plato's theory of education 'is the logical result of his conception of justice'. Discuss. [60marks] [2004]
54. ‘Hobbes starts as an individualist, but ends as an absolutist’. Comment. [200words, 20marks] [2004]
55. 'Mill was the prophet of an empty liberty and abstract individual.' (Barker). Comment. [200words, 20marks] [2004]
56. Explain Hegel's theory of dialectical idealism. [60marks] [2004]
57. Is Gramsci a theoretician of super-structures? Give reasons to your answer. [60marks] [2004]
58. Comment on: The authority of the master and that of the statements are different from one another (Aristotle). [200words, 20marks] [2004]
59. Explain Plato's communism and compare it with modern communism. [60marks] [2003]
60. Comment: The reason why men enter into civil society is the preservation of theirnproperty. (Locke). [200words, 20marks] [2003]
61. The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. (Karl Marx). Comment. [60marks] [2003]
62. Comment on: Machiavelli's political philosophy was narrowly local and narrowly dated (Sabine). [200words, 20marks] [2003]
63. Discuss the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. [200words, 60marks] [2003]
64. Comment: 'The polis exists by nature and that it is prior to the individual (Aristotle). [200words, 20marks] [2002]
65. Critically examine Marxist theory of the state with reference to the dictatorship of the proletariat. [60marks] [2001]
66. 'Until philosophers are kings or kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, cities will never have rest from evil'. (Plato). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [2000]
67. Comment on: Power is an end in itself and he (Machievelli) inquires into the means that are best suited to acquire, retain and expand power, thus separates power from morality, ethics, religion and metaphysics (Ebensteinn on Machievelli). [200words, 20marks] [2000]
68. Policy or constitutional government may be described generally as a fusion of oligarchy and democracy. Comment. [200words, 20marks] [1999]
69. 'Liberty or freedom, signifies properly the absence of opposition in external impediments of motion'. (Hobbes). Comment. [200words, 20marks] [1999]
70. Comment: 'The great and chief end, therefore, of men uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of property; to which in the state of nature there are many things waiting’. (John Locke). [200words, 20marks] [1999]
71. In the first place, it is mostly considered unjust to deprive anyone of his personal liberty, his property or any other thing which belongs to him by law. (John Stuart Mill). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1999]
72. '....all human history is a process whereby ideas objectify themselves in material reality' (Hegel). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1999]
73. Marx's work could be seen as a compound of three elements-Greek philosophy, English political economy and French socialism (Lenin). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1999]
74. 'Polity is the best practicable form of government'. (Aristotle). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1998]
75. The prince must be fox and the lion at the same time (Machiavelli). [200words, 20marks] [1998]
76. 'Hobbes relieved sovereignty completely from the disabilities which Bodin had inconsistently left standing'. (Sabine). Comment. [200words, 20marks] [1998]
77. Rousseau's theory of Social Contract is Hobbes Leviathan with its head chopped off. Discuss. [60marks] [1998]
78. Discuss how early radical liberation was modified by John Stuart mill. [60marks] [1998]
79. Leninism is Marxism in the epoch of imperialisms and proletarian revolution. (Stalin). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1998]
80. 'Whoever therefore out of a State of Nature united into a Commonwealth must be understood to give up all the Power necessary to the Ends for which they united into Society, to the majority of the Community’. (Locke). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1997]
81. 'It is not the consciousness of men that determine their being, but, on the contrary, their social being determines their consciousness'. (Marx). [200words, 20marks] [1997]
82. Comment: 'Slavery is natural and beneficial both for the master and the slave’. (Aristotle). [200words, 20marks] [1996]
83. 'No man can be deprived of his property without his consent'. (Locke). Comment. [200words, 20marks] [1996]
84. 'It is hard indeed to turn the Lockean doctrine into any kind of unqualified democratic theory'. (MacPherson). Discuss. [60marks] [1996]
85. The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it (J. S. Mill). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1996]
86. 'Contradiction is the very moving principle of the world'. (Hegel). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1996]
87. 'Rule of law is better than the rule of men' (Aristotle). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1995]
88. 'The end of every man is continued success in obtaining those things which he, from time to time, desires'. (Hobbes). Discuss. [200words, 20marks] [1995]
89. 'Punishment should be preventive and corrective rather than retaliatory'.(Bentham). Discuss.[200words, 20marks] [1995]
90. Comment: 'The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it'. (J S Mill). [200words, 20marks] [1995]