UPHESC Assistant Professor Political Science 2025 PYQs

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.

Concept: Integral view: administration = all activities (managerial + technical + clerical + manual) done to achieve a goal. Managerial view: only the managerial activities of those at the top.

1. Integral view – L. D. White, Marshall Dimock, Pfiffner, F. M. Marx.
2. Managerial view – Luther Gulick, Herbert Simon, Smithburg and Thompson.
3. So Simon and Gulick do not support the integral view.

Short trick: White & Marx = integral; Simon & Gulick = managerial.

Concept: F. W. Taylor (The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911) replaced the single foreman with eight functional foremen.

1. Planning side: route clerk, instruction card clerk, time and cost clerk, disciplinarian.
2. Shop side: gang boss, speed boss, repair boss, inspector.
3. Fayol gave 14 principles and unity of command (which functional foremanship violates); Gulick gave POSDCORB.

Short trick: Taylor = 8 foremen; Fayol = unity of command.

Concept: Andrew Jackson (1829–37) institutionalised the spoils system – rotation in office and jobs for party loyalists.

1. Senator William Marcy: 'To the victor belong the spoils.'
2. It was curbed by the Pendleton Act (1883) after President Garfield's assassination, introducing the merit system.

Short trick: Jackson = Spoils; Pendleton Act 1883 = Merit.

Concept: Performance budgeting (from the US Hoover Commission, 1949) links expenditure with programmes and results.

1. India's Administrative Reforms Commission, in its 1968 report on Finance, Accounts and Audit, recommended performance budgeting.
2. Following this (1968), it was introduced in India and applied first to selected development ministries from 1969, later extended.
3. Zero-based budgeting came later (1983–87); outcome budget in 2005.

Short trick: Hoover 1949 (USA) → ARC 1968 (India).

Concept: Article 312 deals with All India Services.

1. Art. 312(2): the services known as the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service are deemed to be All India Services created by Parliament – both named ✔.
2. Art. 312(1) and (3) (42nd Amendment, 1976) mention an All India Judicial Service ✔.
3. The Indian Forest Service was created in 1966 under the All India Services Act, 1951 (amended 1963) – not named in the Constitution; IFS (Foreign) is a Central Service.

Short trick: Constitution names: IAS, IPS, AIJS.

Concept: Article 320 lists the matters on which UPSC conducts examinations or is consulted.

1. Recruitment – conducts examinations and interviews ✔.
2. Principles for promotions and transfers ✔.
3. Disciplinary matters affecting civil servants ✔.
4. Classification of services, pay scales, cadre management and training are handled by the executive (DoPT), not UPSC.

Short trick: UPSC: Recruit, Promote, Discipline – not Classify.

Concept: Direct recruitment fills posts from outside the service through open competition.

1. Merits: democratic (equal opportunity to all), wider field of choice, new blood and fresh ideas.
2. Demerit: posts filled from outside reduce the chances of promotion for existing employees, lowering morale.
3. So 'widens the avenues of promotion' is wrong – it narrows them.

Short trick: Direct recruitment ↑ outsiders = ↓ promotion chances.

Concept: UN Charter chapters.

1. Chapter VII (Arts. 39–51): action with respect to threats to peace; Art. 51 – right of self-defence.
2. Chapter VIII (Arts. 52–54): Regional Arrangements.
3. Chapter IX (Arts. 55–60): International economic and social co-operation.

Short trick: Ch. VII ends at 51; Ch. VIII = 52–54 regional.

Concept: Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations (1948): 'When we speak of power, we mean man's control over the minds and actions of other men.'

1. He defined political power as 'a psychological relation between those who exercise it and those over whom it is exercised'.
2. International politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power.
3. Weber defined power as the probability of carrying out one's will despite resistance.

Short trick: Morgenthau: power = control over minds and actions.

Concept: National interest consists of the vital goals a state seeks – survival/security, power, peace, economic well-being, protection of its culture and identity.

1. Power – the core of national interest for realists (Morgenthau: 'interest defined in terms of power').
2. Peace and protection of cultural unity/identity are recognised goals.
3. War is only a means (instrument) to secure interests, not an element/goal of national interest.

Short trick: Goals = elements; war = means.