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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (positive liberty)

Right to Life (civil right)

1. In the Parliamentary System of government, the Prime Minister is the head of the Executive, i.e. the Council of Ministers. 

2. In the Presidential System of government, the President is the head of the Executive. ‘ 

3. Since India has adopted the Parliamentary system, we have the post of the Prime Minister. 

4. Since United States of America has adopted Presidential System, they have the post of the President. 

5. The post of the Prime Minister does not exist in Presidential System of government.

Difference between the Parliamentary and Presidential System of government is as follows:

English philosophers such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes considered liberty as a natural right.

Right to Property (not a fundamental right)

Some of the diverse opposition parties had come into existence before the first general elections in 1952 as non-Congress parties which succeeded to gain only a taken of representation in LokhSabha and State Assemblies. These parties maintained a democratic character of the system: 

1. These offered a criticism based on principles to keep ruling party under check. 

2. These parties groomed the leaders also to play a crucial role in shaping the country. 

3. In the early years, these was a lot of respect between leaders of Congress and opposition parties i.e. interim government included even opposition leaders like Dr. Ambedkar, Jayaprakash Narayan, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee into the cabinet.

The role of opposition parties is important in Parliamentary as well as Presidential System of government:

1. The opposition parties participate in the discussions and point out the shortcomings in the policies of the government. 

2. The opposition parties control the Executive through their arguments based on deep study of the topics discussed in the Parliament. 

3. The Executive cannot behave in an irresponsible manner due to the pressure of the opposition parties. 

4. The alertness of the opposition parties help in avoiding wrong practices like corruption, ignoring public welfare, passing faulty laws, etc.

This statement is False. 

The Right to Property was a fundamental right. However, in 1978, by the 44th Amendment Act, this right was removed as a fundamental right. 

At present, the Right to property is a Statutory Right (Article – 300A)

The coalition politics was first emerged in India in 1977 under the leadership of Morarji Desai, V.P. Singh formed the coalition government in 1989 on the banner of National Front. Once again coalition government was formed by H.D. Devegowda in the name of United Front.

Then Atal Bihari Vajapayee formed the coalition government with the help of National Democratic Alliance. Dr. Manmohan Singh formed the coalition government in the name of United Progressive Alliance. It was once again formed under the leadership of Narendra Modi in 2014 with the help of National Democratic Alliance.

This statement is True. 

Rights help to strengthen liberty. Liberty itself consists of various civil, political, and economic rights. 

Thus, rights and liberty are two sides of the same coin.

All the leaders of alliance in the coalition politics influences on all the decisions taken by the government, it is called collective leadership.

The two examples of countries having coalition is India and France.

India experienced coalition in 1977.

The merits of coalition government are as follows : 

(a) It provides broader representation to the people as big and small parties join hands in the governance. It also enables them to have a share in policy making and eliminates regional disparities. 

(b) It provides an opportunity for the creation of consensus based politics which represents the public opinion in national policies, issues and programmes. 

(c) Coalition takes care of diversity and plurality in administration. 

(d) By feeling the pulse of the people, it provides good governance. 

(e) The presence of various political parties provides broader choice for the people to elect.

(a) Coalition takes care of diversity and plurality in administration. 

(b) It enables all the coalition partners to have a share in policy making and eliminates regional disparties

Mahatma Gandhi accepted the concept of Swaraj as liberty. He spelled this out in his work, ‘Hind Swaraj’. The term Swaraj implies a combination of two ideas: Self (Swa) and Rule (Raj). Thus Swaraj means Self-Rule. Gandhiji’s concept of Swaraj was comprehensive. He did not accept Swaraj only as freedom from British rule but also as freedom from western cultural domination. Swaraj would mean freedom from the trampling of humanitarian values. This concept gives more importance to self-governance, self-discipline, and human values.

Various political parties make alliance with one another to form the government alter the elections, it is called post poll alliance.

The features of coalition government are as follows: 

(a) Coalition is the product of multiparty system. 

(b) It is a democratic arrangement. 

(c) It challenges single party dominance and in which smaller parties come together to defeat the bigger ones in elections and snatch the power and vice-versa. 

(d) Coalition may be pre-poll arrangement or post-poll arrangement.

(e) Alliance partners prefer to have a common minimum programme for governance.

(a) Political instability persists in coalition politics. 

(b) Coalition governments can not have long term planning and view.

B.J.P and Shivasena are the two alliance partners of NDA.

Positive liberty and Negative liberty are two aspects of liberty that have their origin in liberalism. Negative liberty emerged from classical and neoclassical liberalism and finds expression in the views of thinkers like Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Robert Nozick, Friedrich Hayek, and Isaiah Berlin.

Negative liberty opposes all restraints on liberty i.e., the State should not interfere in the social, economic life of the individual. It opposes any coercion, interference, or force on part of the State. The base negative aspect of liberty is the freedom of thought. Bentham argues that every person knows how to protect their own interest and hence no obstruction should be brought by the State.

John Stuart Mill suggests that negative liberty should be rejected only if it adversely impacts society. Hayek described liberty as a hurdleless situation while Nozick suggested that the individual should be free from social, economic, and State restrictions. Berlin explains that negative liberty is opposition to restraints on the choice of alternatives.

The positive aspect of liberty as advocated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Herbert Marcuse emerged from modern liberalism. It states that liberty affects equality and justice. The law guides the individual towards the enrichment of their personality. Rousseau advocated the idea of State control over the individual since the State is a sovereign power that represents the ‘General Will’.

Similarly, Marcuse advocates State interference and collective control as essential in community life. We can conclude in the two statements of Isaiah Berlin.

• The negative aspect of liberty – ‘I am a slave to no man’.
• The positive aspect of liberty – ‘I am my own master’.

Indian National Congress and D.M.K.. are the two alliance partners of NDA.

According to Harold Laski, ‘Rights are those conditions of social life without which no man can seek, in general, to be himself at his best. Rights may be classified as natural rights, moral rights or legal (civil-political) rights. Natural Rights e.g., the right to life, are parts of human nature and reason. They are not dependent on the laws of any government or the customs of any culture. They are universal and inalienable. They are considered beyond the authority of any government or international body to dismiss. The idea of human rights is closely related to that of natural rights. In the United States Declaration of Independence, natural rights mentioned are ‘Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness. Our natural rights as human beings include being treated justly regardless of race, religion, gender, region, etc.

John Locke and Thomas Hobbes strongly advocated natural rights. Natural rights are important because without them we would have no claim to freedom. Legal rights refer to rights according to law. These rights are granted by the State to the people and exist differently in different countries. They are justiciable and codified in law. Such rights are neither universal nor inalienable. Legal rights include civil rights and political rights.

Right to education

Human Rights are those rights that we are entitled to simply because we are human beings. Henry Thoreau first described natural rights as human rights. These are basic rights of people anywhere in the world to be free from exploitation, injustice, and want, to lead a dignified existence, and to develop to the fullest extent. The U.N.O adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (U.D.H.R) on 10th December 1948. These rights are dynamic i.e., they develop with changing times. U.D.H.R expresses belief in the liberty and equality of human beings and promotes the culture of peace and cooperation.

Human rights can be classified as

• Civil and Political rights – These are liberty-oriented rights like the right to freedom of thought, right to vote, etc.
• Social, Cultural, and Economic rights – These include the right to social justice, the right to work, etc.
• Developmental rights – These are linked to the concept of fraternity e.g., the right to a healthy environment, right to information.

The implementation of human rights requires favorable political, socio-economic conditions in the state. In the absence of such, these rights may be violated or denied as happens in the case of women, children, displaced persons, minorities, etc.

Moral rights

This statement is True.

• Legal rights include political and civil rights which are granted by the State to the people. Legal rights are codified in law.
• Different countries grant different rights to their people. Hence, unlike natural rights, legal rights are not universal.

Coalition is a democratic arrangement. It provides broader representation to the people to elect their representatives. It challenges single party dominance.

The President of India constitutes the Finance Commission.

Planning Commission advises all the states to raise the standard of living of the people.

Supreme Court

It affected thousands of job opportunities.

A state of emergency can be declared under the following conditions:

(i) Increase of external aggression or armed rebellion;

(ii) It the government machinery of a state breaks down;

(iii) If there is a threat to the financial stability of the country. Under these circumstances, the President can impose a state of emergency and this is called President Rule.

Prime Minister

In its election manifesto, the Janata Dal promised that if voted to power, it would implement the Mandal Commission report. The Janata Dal did form the government after this election. Its leader V. P. Singh became the Prime Minister. 

The Second Backward Class Commission appointed in 1979.

Order issued by the Government of India.

The important functionaries in the government of India are as follows: 

1. President is the head of the state and is the highest formal authority in the country. 

2.Prime Minister is the head of the government and actually exercises all governmental powers. He takes most of the decisions in the Cabinet meetings. 3. Parliament consists of two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The Prime Minister must have the support of a majority of Lok Sabha members. 

Rajya Sabha has the authority to transfer the subject in State list to the Union List for a period of one year.

This Order announced a major policy decision. It said that 27 per cent of the vacancies in civil posts and services under the Government of India are reserved for the Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC). SEBC is another name for all those people who belong to castes that are considered backward by the government. The benefit of job reservation was till then available only to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. 

1. Some felt that existence of inequalities among people of different castes in India necessitated job reservations. They felt, this would give a fair opportunity to those communities who so far had not adequately been represented in government employment. 

2. Others felt that this was unfair as it would deny equality of opportunity to those who did not belong to backward communities. They would be denied jobs even though they could be more qualified. 

3. Some felt that this would perpetuate caste feelings among people and hamper national unity. 

(a) External Affairs 

(b) Defence

The list of subjects which are administered by the state governments is called State List. There are 63 subjects in the State List.

Sri Morarji Desai was the first Prime Minister of coalition Government in India.

United Front was formed in 1996.

The subject in the State List is Police.

As per Article 356 of Indian Constitution, the State Emergency can be declared.

Cabinet ministers are the top-level leaders of the ruling party or parties and are in charge of the major ministries. Ministers of state with independent charge are on the other hand usually in-charge of smaller ministries. The decisions are taken in cabinet meetings and the other ministers have to follow these decisions. They attend the cabinet meeting only if they are invited.

Independence of the judiciary means that it is not under the control of the legislature or the executive. The judges do not act on the direction of the government or according to the wishes of the party in power. There is very little scope for the ruling party to interfere.

(i) The appointment of judges of Supreme Court and High Courts is done by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister and in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

(ii) Once a person is appointed as judge of the Supreme Court or the High Court, it is impossible to remove him.

(iii) The judiciary in India is one of the most powerful in the world. The Supreme Court and the High Courts have the power to interpret the constitution of the country.

(iv) They can declare invalid any law of the legislative or the actions of the executive whether at the Union level or at the State level.