UPHESC Assistant Professor Political Science 2025 PYQs

Concept: Political development theorists of the SSRC Committee on Comparative Politics: Almond, Pye, Coleman, La Palombara, Verba, Weiner, Binder.

1. Lucian Pye – 'development syndrome' (equality, capacity, differentiation).
2. Joseph La Palombara – Bureaucracy and Political Development.
3. James Coleman – The Politics of the Developing Areas (with Almond).
4. Arend Lijphart is known for consociational and consensus democracy, not political development.

Short trick: Lijphart = consociationalism.

Concept: Article 19(1) lists the freedoms in clauses (a) to (g) ((f) property was deleted in 1978).

1. (a) speech and expression; (b) assemble peaceably and without arms → 4.
2. (c) form associations or unions or co-operative societies → 2.
3. (d) move freely; (e) reside and settle in any part of India → 3.
4. (g) practise any profession, occupation, trade or business → 1.

Short trick: S-A-A-M-R-P: Speech, Assembly, Association, Movement, Residence, Profession.

Concept: Federal features: dual polity, written constitution, division of powers, supremacy and rigidity of the constitution, independent judiciary, bicameralism.

1. Division of power between Union and States (Seventh Schedule) – federal ✔.
2. Independent judiciary to settle Centre–State disputes (Art. 131) – federal ✔.
3. Written Constitution – federal ✔.
4. Separation of powers concerns organs of government (horizontal), and PM's leadership is a parliamentary, not a federal, feature.

Short trick: Federalism = vertical division; separation of powers = horizontal.

Concept: Under Article 111 the Indian President has three vetoes.

1. Absolute veto – withholding assent (e.g. private members' bills, bills after a cabinet falls).
2. Suspensive veto – returning a non-money bill for reconsideration; it can be overridden by a simple majority.
3. Pocket veto – no time limit to act (Zail Singh, Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 1986).
4. Qualified veto (override only by special majority) is with the US President, not the Indian President.

Short trick: India: Absolute + Suspensive + Pocket; USA: Qualified + Pocket.

Concept: Landmark cases on Parliament's power to amend Fundamental Rights.

1. Sajjan Singh v. State of Rajasthan – 1965 (upheld 17th Amendment).
2. I. C. Golaknath v. State of Punjab – 1967 (Parliament cannot amend FRs).
3. Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala – 1973 (basic structure doctrine).
4. Minerva Mills v. Union of India – 1980 (limited amending power is part of basic structure).

Short trick: S-G-K-M: 65, 67, 73, 80.

Concept: The Union Budget passes through six stages: presentation → general discussion → scrutiny by departmental committees → voting on demands for grants → Appropriation Bill → Finance Bill.

1. Statements 1 and 2 are correct – stages, beginning with presentation.
2. Statement 3 is wrong – the budget is NOT passed after general discussion; at that stage no cut motion or vote is taken.
3. Statement 4 is correct – the Appropriation Bill is an integral stage of the general budget.
4. Since 3 is wrong, options A, C and D drop out; only B (1, 2, 4) remains.

Short trick: General discussion = no voting; money is voted later (demands → appropriation).

Concept: Planned economic development began in the USSR (first Five Year Plan 1928).

1. 1 ✘ – planning was a Soviet, not British, idea. 2 ✔ – India borrowed five-year planning from the USSR.
2. 3 ✔ – Nehru, first chairman of the Planning Commission (1950), was its chief architect.
3. 4 ✘ – India had only 12 Five Year Plans (last 2012–17).
4. 5 ✔ – NITI Aayog (1 Jan 2015) replaced the Planning Commission as the main planning/policy body.

Short trick: 12 plans, not 15; Soviet idea; NITI Aayog since 2015.

Concept: Article numbers decide the order.

1. Art. 39A – equal justice and free legal aid (42nd Amendment) → I.
2. Art. 40 – organisation of village panchayats → III.
3. Art. 43 – living wage etc. for workers → IV.
4. Art. 50 – separation of judiciary from executive → II.

Short trick: 39A → 40 → 43 → 50.

Concept: State funding of elections in India has been examined by several bodies.

1. c ✔ – Indrajit Gupta Committee (1998) endorsed (partial, in-kind) state funding of elections.
2. b ✔ – the Law Commission under Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy (170th Report, 1999) did not favour it immediately: total state funding only after internal party democracy and accounting reforms are in place.
3. a ✔ – electoral reform remains a pressing need.
4. d ✘ – comprehensive electoral reforms (including state funding) have not been enacted by Parliament; every option containing d is wrong.

Short trick: Indrajit Gupta = yes to state funding; d is false → choose the only option without d.

Concept: Committees on Panchayati Raj after Balwant Rai Mehta (1957).

1. Ashok Mehta Committee – 1977–78 (two-tier system).
2. G. V. K. Rao Committee – 1985 (block development, district as basic unit).
3. L. M. Singhvi Committee – 1986 (constitutional status for PRIs).
4. P. K. Thungon Committee – 1988 (constitutional recognition, 5-year term).

Short trick: A-G-S-T: 77, 85, 86, 88.

Concept: Article 324 creates the Election Commission but leaves many details open.

1. The Constitution prescribes no qualifications (legal, educational, administrative) for Election Commissioners – so statement 1 is false (the incorrect one).
2. For Election Commissioners other than the CEC, Art. 324(5) only says they can be removed on the CEC's recommendation; no grounds are defined – statement 2 is true.
3. The CEC alone is removable like a Supreme Court judge.

Short trick: Constitution silent on EC qualifications, term and grounds of removal of ECs.

Concept: The 73rd Amendment (1992) added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule.

1. Constitutional status to PRIs (Arts. 243–243O) ✔.
2. Financial autonomy – power to levy taxes, State Finance Commission (Art. 243I) ✔.
3. Empowerment of marginalised – reservation for SC/ST and one-third for women (Art. 243D) ✔.
4. Decentralised planning – plans for economic development and social justice (Art. 243G, 29 subjects) ✔.

Short trick: 73rd = status + funds + reservation + planning – all four.

Concept: The two removal devices differ in nature.

1. A no-confidence motion is political – it only shows the Lok Sabha has lost confidence in the Council of Ministers' policies; no charge of misconduct is involved ✔.
2. Impeachment (Art. 61) is quasi-judicial, on the charge of 'violation of the Constitution'; if passed, it brands the President as having violated the Constitution, practically ending his public career ✔.

Short trick: No-confidence = policy; Impeachment = charge.

Concept: Scholars' descriptions of Indian federalism.

1. K. C. Wheare – 'quasi-federal' (a unitary state with subsidiary federal features).
2. Granville Austin – 'cooperative federalism'.
3. Ivor Jennings – 'a federation with a strong centralising tendency'.
4. K. Santhanam – 'paramountcy' of the Union / fiscal dependence.

Short trick: Wheare = quasi; Austin = cooperative; Jennings = centralising.

Concept: Article 243B (73rd Amendment) provides a three-tier system.

1. Gram Panchayat at village level.
2. Panchayat Samiti (Kshetra Panchayat in UP) at block/intermediate level.
3. Zila Parishad at district level.
4. States with population under 20 lakh may skip the intermediate tier.

Short trick: Village–Block–District = 3 tiers (Balwant Rai Mehta).

Concept: Welfare administration grew with the welfare state in industrialised societies (Bismarck's social insurance, Beveridge Report).

1. a, b ✔ – it arose to meet problems created by industrialisation (unemployment, slums, industrial accidents).
2. c, d ✔ – it deals with poverty, sickness, old age and delivers social services (health, education, social security).
3. e ✘ – NGOs, voluntary bodies and the private sector (CSR, PPP) play an important role.

Short trick: Any 'no role' statement in welfare = false.

Concept: Weber's bureaucracy is an 'ideal type' – a form of rational-legal organisation found in all large organisations (state, army, church, firms, parties).

1. So bureaucracy ≠ civil service of a government – (A) is true.
2. Weber's ideal type is meant to be value-neutral (descriptive, not a judgement of good/bad) – (R) is true.
3. But (A) follows from the generic, structural nature of the ideal type, not from its value-neutrality – so (R) does not explain (A).

Short trick: Ideal type → applies to any big organisation; value-neutrality is a separate trait.

Concept: NPM emerged in the late 1980s–1990s (Thatcher, Reagan, New Zealand reforms).

1. a ✘ – not the 1950s.
2. b ✔ – Christopher Hood coined/systematised 'NPM' ('A Public Management for All Seasons?', 1991).
3. c ✔ – it was offered as the standard remedy for an inefficient public sector.
4. d ✔ – Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness (3Es).
5. e ✘ – NPM is a reaction against Weberian bureaucracy.

Short trick: NPM = Hood + 3Es + 1980s, anti-Weber.

Concept: Public administration is 'government in action' – the machinery that implements public policy and goals ✔.

1. In the 17th–18th centuries German and Austrian 'Cameralists' (e.g. von Justi, Sonnenfels) studied state administration systematically; chairs of cameral science were set up in German universities (Halle, Frankfurt-on-Oder, 1727) ✔.
2. Wilson's 1887 essay came later and also referred to the European (German/French) science of administration.

Short trick: Cameralism = 18th-century German administrative science.

Concept: New Public Administration came from the Minnowbrook Conference (1968, Dwight Waldo; Frank Marini, H. George Frederickson).

1. Its themes: relevance, values, social equity, change, client-orientation.
2. Golembiewski/Frederickson list: client-focused administration, post-positivism, debureaucratisation, democratic (participative) decision-making, decentralisation, adapting to a turbulent environment.
3. So all five are features.

Short trick: Minnowbrook = Relevance, Values, Equity, Change, Client – all 'anti-classical' features.