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Political Theory
Concepts
LIBERTY, EQUALITY, JUSTICE, RIGHTS, DEMOCRACY, POWER, CITIZENSHIP
Political traditions
LIBERALISM, CONSERVATISM, SOCIALISM, MARXISM, FEMINISM, ECOLOGISM,
MULTICULTURALISM, POST-MODERNISM
INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL THEORY
• Political Science is one of the oldest academic disciplines.
• It originated in Ancient Greece; Aristotle is the Father of Political Science.
• Aristotle called Political Science the “Master Science.”
• Traditional Definition (Garner): Political science begins and ends with the state.
• Modern Definition (Lasswell & Kaplan): Politics is the process of shaping and sharing power in
society—who gets what, when, and how.
Key Components of Political Science
• Political Theory
• Comparative Politics
• International Relations
Political Theory Subdivisions
• Political Philosophy
• Political Thought
• Political Science
Definition of Politics
• Derived from Greek “Polis” meaning city-state.
• Traditional View (Aristotle): Politics as the public sphere.
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• Contemporary View (Carole Hanish): The personal is political.
Political Thought
• Systematic reflection on politics, rooted in human pursuit of better life.
• Foundation of political science providing concepts and terminology.
• Involves ethics and politics interwoven.
Traditions in Political Thought
• Western
• Indian
• Chinese
• African
Classics in Political Thought
• Representative texts embodying peak knowledge of their age.
Methods to Study Classics
1. Textual Approach
• Advocated by: Andrew Hacker, Leo Strauss, Plamenatz.
• Text alone is the source of meaning; universal and timeless issues are emphasized.
• Ignore historical context; focus on the text’s literal and philosophical content.
2. Contextual Approach
• Advocated by: Laski, Sabine, Skinner, Pocock, Dunn.
• Text must be understood within historical, social, and authorial context.
• Quentin Skinner: Emphasized language and author’s intentions.
• Pocock: Focus on linguistic usage in specific communities.
Criticism of Contextual Approach
• Overemphasis on context risks neglecting the text itself.
• Context explains but doesn’t necessarily help understand.
• Great texts transcend their own time.
3. Interpretative Method
• Advocated by: Gadamer, Ricoeur, Terrence Ball.
• Interpretation is inevitable—text and reader both shape understanding.
• Gadamer: “Fusion of horizons” between reader and text.
• Ricoeur: Texts have “surplus of meanings” beyond author’s intent.
• Barthes: Text is a multidimensional space of blended meanings.
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Importance of Studying Political Thought
• Helps understand and critique current political discourse.
• Not just historical, but continuously relevant and transformative.
Political Philosophy
• Normative, abstract, and universal—focuses on “what ought to be.”
• Sets ethical standards and envisions the ideal political life.
Political Theory
• Derives from political thought; uses its concepts and tools.
• Normative Political Theory: Conceptual and value-driven.
• Scientific/Positivistic Political Theory: Empirical and data-driven.
• Both types are complementary.
Meaning & Nature of Political Theory
• Political theory is systematic knowledge of political phenomena.
• It includes empirical, logical, and evaluative statements.
• Empirical = what is; Normative = what ought to be.
• Political theory combines political science (facts) and political philosophy (values).
• George Catlin: Political theory = political science + political philosophy.
• Andrew Hacker: Every political scientist is part philosopher and part scientist.
• Political theory performs description, criticism, and reconstruction.
What is Political?
• Political refers to the public sphere involving authority and decision-making.
• Aristotle: “Man is by nature a political animal.”
• ‘Polity’, ‘politics’, and ‘political’ come from the Greek word polis.
Political Science vs. Political Philosophy
• Political science: empirical, value-neutral, fact-based.
• Political philosophy: normative, value-laden, prescriptive.
• Political philosophy analyses, synthesises, and improves political concepts (e.g. justice, liberty).
Empirical vs Normative Theory
• Empirical theories describe political facts and behaviour.
• Normative theories prescribe values and ethical standards.
• Empirical = objective; Normative = value-based.
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• Both approaches are complementary, not mutually exclusive.
Approaches to Political Theory
1. Philosophical / Normative Approach
Key Features / Meaning:
• Also called philosophical approach.
• Concerned with what ought to be, not what is.
• Clarifies political concepts and evaluates moral-political values.
• Concerned with ‘human nature’, rights, justice, and the ideal state.
• Asks moral and ethical questions like: Why obey the state? What is justice? etc.
• Prescriptive and value-laden.
• Focus on ideal society, justice, equality, liberty, duties, rights.
• Based on rationalism and abstract reasoning.
• Uses deductive (top-down) logic.
Main Thinkers & Contributions:
• Plato – Vision of the Ideal State.
• Saint Augustine – City of God, divine order.
• Thomas Aquinas – 5 proofs of God, divine natural law.
• John Rawls – Theory of Justice, rational basis for fairness.
• Robert Nozick – Entitlement Theory of Justice.
• Leo Strauss – Revived normative political theory.
• Hannah Arendt – Power as collective creation.
2. Empirical Approach
Key Features / Meaning:
• Describes politics as it is; based on facts, not values.
• Uses scientific observation, data analysis, and experiments.
• Based on empiricism (knowledge through senses).
• Promotes value-free, objective, measurable inquiry.
• Follows inductive (bottom-up) method.
• Builds scientific theory of politics through behaviour, systems, and structures.
Main Thinkers & Contributions:
• Aristotle – First empirical analysis of constitutions.
• Francis Bacon – Father of empiricism.
• David Hume – Philosophy as experimental science.
• John Locke – Tabula Rasa, human mind is a blank slate.
• Auguste Comte – Father of positivism, coined sociology.
• David Easton – Systems Theory, father of empirical approach.
• Karl Popper – Scientific theories are falsifiable.
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• Robert Dahl, Seymour Lipset – Pluralism and democratic theory.
• Gabriel Almond – Structural-functional approach.
• Jean Blondel, Peter Laslett – Empirical political theory.
• Herbert Simon – Logical positivism in politics.
3. Historical Approach
Key Features / Meaning:
• Uses history as a tool to explain present and future political phenomena.
• Studies causes, evolution, and genealogy of political ideas.
• Emphasises human agency over structural determinism.
• Often overlaps with normative/philosophical approach.
• Uses historical context to understand political thinkers and movements.
Main Thinkers & Contributions:
• Karl Marx – Historical materialism, class struggle as historical driver.
• Hegel – Dialectical evolution of ideas through history.
• Machiavelli – Historical realism in The Prince.
• Theda Skocpol – States and Social Revolutions, comparative historical analysis.
• Ram Manohar Lohia – Wheels of History, caste and history.
• Swami Vivekananda – Cycle of caste rule.
• Michael Oakeshott – What is History?, critique of rationalism in history.
4. Legal Approach
• Focuses on constitutional laws and legal frameworks.
• Studies legitimacy, rule of law, and formal structures.
5. Institutional Approach
• Analyses formal political institutions (legislature, executive, etc.).
• Ignores informal processes and non-institutional politics.
Behaviouralism
• Emphasises scientific study of actual political behaviour.
• Key figures: Charles Merriam, David Easton, Harold Lasswell.
• Eight tenets: Regularities, Systematisation, Techniques, Measurement, Verification, Integration,
Value-neutrality, Pure science.
• Behaviouralism helped study electoral behaviour and political systems in developing countries.
Post-Behaviouralism
• Emerged due to irrelevance of behaviouralism in addressing real-world crises.
• David Easton’s “Credo of Relevance” demanded action-oriented, value-based research.
• Key features: Relevance over technique, values welcomed, solving crises, applied science, moral
responsibility.
• Post-behaviouralism = synthesis of traditionalism and behaviouralism.
Decline of Political Theory
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• David Easton identified 4 causes: Historicism, Moral Relativism, Science-Theory Confusion, Hyper-
Factualism.
• Political theory became irrelevant due to focus on outdated ideas and facts without purpose.
Revival of Political Theory
• Led by thinkers like Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, Rawls, Habermas.
• Political theory revived with concern for justice, rights, environment, feminism.
• David Held: Without political theory, politics risks being controlled by the self-interested.
POSITIVISM & LOGICAL POSITIVISM
Positivism: True knowledge must be based on sense-experience; rejects metaphysics.
Logical positivism: Founded by Vienna Circle, denies scientific validity of value claims.
CAUSAL THEORY
A theory explaining cause-effect relations; predicts outcomes based on causes.
LIBERTY
1.Concepts
Liberty comes from Latin word ‘Liber’, meaning freedom.
Liberty originally meant freedom from state restraints.
Political liberty in absence of economic liberty is a myth – G.D.H. Cole.
Liberty = Ability to express personality without external hindrance.
Liberty = Power to do things worth doing or enjoying – T.H. Green.
Liberty is the opposite of over-government; it thrives on minimal interference.
Liberty = Maintenance of an atmosphere for self-realisation – Laski.
Liberty = Right to own property – supported by Hayek, David Kelley.
Liberty = Freedom from coercion – Milton Friedman.
Liberty has two types: Negative (freedom from) and Positive (freedom to).
Negative liberty is associated with liberalism; positive liberty with leftist thought.
Positive liberty led to libertarianism and welfare state ideas.
Washington Consensus is linked to liberalism and free-market liberty.
Libertarianism supports minimal state, individual liberty, and economic freedom.
Hayek’s four meanings of liberty: political, inner, economic, and freedom as power.
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Liberty is a normative concept involving choice, absence of constraints, and enabling conditions.
Hobbes: Liberty is the absence of external impediments.
Locke: Liberty is the natural right to life, liberty, and property, under moral law.
Rousseau: Liberty is obeying the general will for civil and moral freedom.
Bentham: Liberty is absence of restraint, justified by utility.
Mill: Liberty is freedom to act unless causing harm to others (harm principle).
Hegel: Liberty is self-actualisation within ethical life and the rational state.
Marx: Liberty is freedom from exploitation and alienation in a classless society.
Berlin: Negative liberty is “freedom from”; positive liberty is “freedom to”.
Constant: Ancient liberty is political participation; modern liberty is personal autonomy.
Pettit/Skinner: Republican liberty is freedom as non-domination (absence of arbitrary power).
MacCallum: Liberty is triadic—agent (X), action (Y), constraint (Z).
Sen/Nussbaum: Liberty as capability—the real freedom to do and be what one values.
Rawls: Liberty and equality are compatible under just conditions (veil of ignorance).
2.Thinkers Associated With Liberty
Negative Liberty Thinkers Positive Liberty Thinkers
Isaiah Berlin T.H.Green
Hobbes Rousseau
John Locke Hegel
Tocqueville Hobhouse
Jefferson Bosanquet
Sidgwick Laski
Friedman Herbert Marcuse
Thomas Paine C.B. Macpherson
Nozick Hobson
Hayek Mahatma Gandhi
J. S. Mill Aurobindo
Other Key Thinkers:
G.D.H. Cole – Liberty requires economic justice.
David Kelley – Defended liberty as self-ownership.
Herbert Marcuse – Criticized capitalism and introduced One-Dimensional Man.
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Karl Marx – Saw liberty as human emancipation in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts.
C.B. Macpherson – Critiqued western democracy as utilitarian and power-maximising.
3.Books Of Thinkers Related To Liberty
Thinkers Book Title and Year
J.S. Mill: On Liberty (1859)
Isaiah Berlin: Two Concepts of Liberty (1958) ; Four Essays on Liberty (1969)
Milton Friedman: Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
F.A. Hayek: The Constitution of Liberty (1960) ; Road to Serfdom (1944);
Law Legislation & Liberty (1973)
Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974)
L.T Hobhouse Elements of social justice (1922)
Milton Friedman Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
Marx and Engels Holy Family – 1844
John Lewis Marxism and the open mind – 1976
Engels Anti-Duhring – 1878
Karl Marx Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts- 1844
Amartya Sen Quality of Life – 1993
Amartya Sen Development as Freedom – 2000
David Kelley Life, Liberty, and Property (1984)
Murray Rothbard The Ethics of Liberty (1982)
Eric Fromm Escape from Freedom (1941)
Nelson Mandela Long walk Freedom (1995)
Aung San Suu Kyi Freedom from Fear (1990)
Joseph Raz Morality of Freedom (1986)
G.C. MacCullum Negative and Positive Freedom (1972)
Herbert Marcuse: (Book Year) C.B. Macpherson:
Reason and Revolution (1941)
Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes
Eros and Civilization (1955) to Locke
Soviet Marxism (1958) The Political Theory of possessive individualism
One-Dimensional Man (1964) (1962)
Repressive Tolerance (1965) The real world of democracy (1966)
Negation (1969)
Democratic Theory: Essay in Retrieval (1973)
An Essay on Liberalism (1969)
Counter-Revolution and Revolt (1972)
The Aesthetic Dimension (1978)
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4.Quotes
THINKERS QUOTES
Rousseau Freedom is obeying laws reflecting general will.
T.H Green Liberty is the positive power of doing things worth doing.
Hobbes A free man is one not hindered to do what he has a will to.
Hayek Freedom is absence of coercion by arbitrary will.
J.S. Mill Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
Locke Man is free to act without subject to arbitrary will within moral law.
Friedman freedom as absence of coercion between men.
R.H. Tawney The freedom of pike is death to the minnows.
Laski Freedom defined as presence of reasonable opportunities.
Lord Acton The passion for equality has made vain the hope of liberty
5.Past Pyqs & High-Probability Themes
Isaiah Berlin:
Differentiated negative & positive liberty.
Advocated negative liberty.
Criticized positive liberty as slippery slope to totalitarianism.
Concept of divided self.
Warned positive liberty could lead to totalitarianism through the divided self.
J.S. Mill:
Harm principle; supported negative liberty.
State should intervene only in other-regarding actions.
Benjamin Constant:
Known for Ancient vs Modern Liberty distinction.
Montesquieu:
Liberty = separation of powers.
Friedman:
Liberty linked with competitive markets & capitalism.
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EQUALITY
1.Key Concepts
Equality means correcting unjust inequalities through fair and justifiable treatment.
Legal Equality ensures equal rights under law regardless of personal characteristics.
Natural Inequality arises from inherent bodily or mental differences (Rousseau).
Conventional Inequality stems from man-made privileges like wealth or status (Rousseau).
Political Equality ensures equal rights to vote, contest elections, and participate in governance.
Civil Equality entails equal legal rights without discrimination based on caste, class, gender, etc.
Equality of Condition goes beyond opportunity to ensure comparable outcomes.
Substantive Equality corrects real-life inequalities beyond formal/legal declarations.
Formal Equality treats all individuals the same under law but may perpetuate structural
disadvantages.
Positive Discrimination/Affirmative Action corrects historical injustices via reservations,quotas, etc.
Reverse Discrimination refers to preference given to disadvantaged groups over others.
Meritocracy (Michael Young) is a system based on individual merit, often criticized for neglecting
structural inequality.
Complex Equality (Michael Walzer) advocates distributing different goods based on relevant criteria
in each sphere.
Negative Equality means non-interference, while Positive Equality seeks proactive state support.
Related Concepts and Debates
Liberty vs Equality Debate:
Negative liberty may conflict with equality (libertarians like Nozick).
Positive liberty supports equality by enabling real freedom.
Equality and Justice:
Justice often implies fair equality rather than strict sameness.
Affirmative Action Debate:
Critics say it undermines merit; defenders argue it ensures real equality.
Formal vs Real Equality:
Real equality often requires differential treatment to correct systemic disadvantages.
Socialism vs Liberalism on Equality:
Liberalism supports formal equality; socialism emphasises economic/social equality.
Equality vs Uniformity:
Equality does not mean sameness; it respects diversity while ensuring fair treatment.
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2.Thinkers Associated With Equality
Thinker’s Contribution
J.J. Rousseau : Distinguished natural and conventional inequality; linked equality to civil society.
T.H. Green Political rights arise from moral and social responsibility.
Ernest Barker Legal equality needs moral depth to be meaningful.
Harold Laski Democracy without social & economic equality is incomplete.
Michael Young Coined and critiqued “Meritocracy” in a satirical context.
Michael Walzer Advocated “Complex Equality” tailored to different spheres of justice.
John Rawls: “Difference Principle” — inequalities must benefit the least advantaged.
F.A. Hayek: Argued equality undermines individual liberty and freedom.
Lord Acton, Tocqueville, Isaiah Berlin Warned that equality imposed by state can erode liberty.
Karl Marx: Economic equality requires abolition of capitalist structures and classes.
Aristotle: Distinguished between natural and conventional inequalities.
Rousseau: Criticized economic inequalities and believed civil society created inequality.
Dworkin: Advocated for equality of resources, not merely welfare.
T.H. Green and Laski: Supported positive liberty and state responsibility in ensuring equality.
Hayek: Opposed enforced equality as it violates freedom and leads to tyranny.
Amartya Sen: Propounded Capability Approach — real freedom lies in what people can do.
Amartya Sen: Equality in the space of capabilities matters more than in the space of income.
Amartya Sen: Focus on what people are actually able to do — their real freedoms.
Amartya Sen on ‘Equality of What?’: Rejected utilitarianism, resource-based, and Rawlsian equality as
incomplete.
3.Books Of Thinkers Related To Equality
Thinkers Book Title & Year
J.J. Rousseau Social Contract (1762), Discourses on the origin of Inequality (1755)
T.H. Green Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation
Ernest Barker Principles of Social and Political Theory (1951)
Michael Young The Rise of Meritocracy (1958)
Michael Walzer Spheres of Justice (1983)
John Rawls A Theory of Justice (1971)
F.A. Hayek The Constitution of Liberty (1960)
Harold Laski Democracy in crisis(1933), State in Theory and Practice (1935),
Parliamentary Government in England (1938)
Amartya Sen Development as Freedom (1999),
Inequality Reexamined (1992), The Idea of Justice (2009)
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R.H. Tawney Equality (1931) ; The Acquisitive society (1920)
Religion and Rise of Capitalism (1926)
Earnest Barker Principles of Social & Political Theory (1951)
Ronald Dworkin Taking Rights Seriously (1977); Law’s Empire (1986)
What is Equality (1981); Sovereign Virtue (2000)
4.Quotes And Theoretical Claims
• "Social and economic inequalities must be arranged to the greatest benefit of the least
advantaged."~ Rawls
• "Political liberty is a sham without economic equality." ~ Laski
• “Enforced equality undermines liberty and leads to authoritarianism”. ~ Hayek
• "Political equality is meaningless without economic justice." ~ Laski
• “Freedom is the absence of coercion.” – Isaiah Berlin
• “The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way.”
– J.S. Mill
• “X is free from Y to do/be Z.” – G.C. MacCallum
• “Freedom is the ability to make the most and best of ourselves.” – T.H. Green
• “Law does not restrict liberty, but enlarges it.” – John Locke
• “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” – Rousseau
• “The freedom of the pike is death to the minnows.” – R.H. Tawney
• “Equality of Opportunity— Tadpole Philosophy” ~ R.H. Tawney
• “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” – Karl Marx
• “You may be forced to be free.” (on the general will)”– Rousseau
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