Class Notes 4 You

Social contract theory symbolises the view that any person’s moral or political obligations are largely dependent on an agreement or contract among them to form a society to live in. It is the feature of capitalist way of life. Along with other things, state also is an outcome of the contract. Contract symbolises the freedom of choice. In any society, the people come together and form a constitution- which represents their will. It shows that the law and rules are not enforced on them by some super-natural authority but decided by themselves. The constitution of modern states is considered as the outcome of this process of social contract. Social contract theory was first proposed by Thomas Hobbes. After him, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau is known as the best proponents of this theory. For Locke, state of nature was the state of peace, goodwill and mutual assistance. This was opposite tot hat of Hobbes, who called the man in state of nature to be utilitarian, individualistic and...

According to WB Gallie, power is an essentially contested concept. Although, various scholars have given varied concepts of ‘power’, no one view can summarise the whole idea completely. One of the most important concepts in this regard was given by Steven Lukes. He identified three dimensions of power in his book, “Power- A radical view”. He stressed on the fact that power is exercised in three ways- decision making power, non-decision making power and ideological power. Similarly, other scholars have also given their views on ‘power’. Karl Marx calls “economy” as the primary base for power. For him, power was not just any religious or philosophical concept; rather it was a ‘resource’. And like any other resource, power is always in a “limited supply”. So it is found to be concentrated among certain actors- like the state and the ruling class. Hobbes believed “law” to be the main base of power in his book “leviathan”. According to him, without a ‘lawful common power’, each person will ...

The concept of “revolution in permanence” was developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1850s; and was popularised by Leon Trotsky. It stresses on the need for the freedom struggle to not stop at the first stage and to continue until the human relations in that society are fundamentally transformed. Although the concept of permanent revolution was largely developed by Leon Trotsky at the time of 1905 Russian revolution, but Mao also believed that, any single revolution is never enough to end the struggle. This is primarily because, the reactionary elements keep on emerging again and again; and so there is a gradual need to change the system regularly. For example- Mao started the Cultural Revolution after the end of communist revolution. Thus “revolution in permanence” can be considered to be a strategy of the revolutionary class who are pursuing their own interest independently to that of society’s interest. Marx in his later work, ‘the critique of the Gotha program’ also talked ...

The word “culture” can be defined as a set of socially transmitted beliefs along with the norms and behaviour of any group or community. India is a nation of various and varied cultures, where no two cultures have the same set of values and norms. Thus, cultural relativism comes to play. It is an idea that any person or society’s values and beliefs should be understood based on that person’s own culture. Because of each culture being totally different from each other, it is important to follow the principle of “relativism” which aims to ensure that- there are no absolute truths, values or beliefs. It aims to promote the understanding of different cultural practices based on the values of the respective societies. No culture should be considered better than any other culture with respect to politics, laws or values. The concept of cultural relativism also aims to ensure that, what is true or false for any particular culture can be the opposite for some other culture. It depends on the m...

The concept of “Systems theory” was given by Mortan Kaplan with an aim to build a scientifically based theory of International Politics. It was an attempt by the behaviouralist scholars to provide a “systems-view” to study International relations. It is largely based on “Systems-approach” model given by David Easten which aimed to aggregate the knowledge from different disciplines and creating a common pool for that. Thus, Kaplan focussed on locating the “elements” of that system in International politics. He considered this theory to be highly suitable because of the inter-disciplinary nature of international politics. He also believed in building a scientific theory to study IR because of international politics largely being a “non-normative” approach. Kaplan’s aim was to create a “grand-theory of International politics” to explain the international politics of previous age as well as of present and future. For that, he gave the 10 models of international politics which included both...