Viti Ray

10.1 Introduction The concept of state occupies a central place in Political Science. The state touches every aspect of human life and has captured the attention of political philosophers since Plato. Understanding the state merely as an administrative machinery is to know only one aspect of it. Its full meaning emerges when understood in relation […]

9.1 Introduction State authority — the power to make laws, demand obedience, and punish violations — is what we encounter as sovereignty in everyday life. Despite appearing simple, sovereignty is one of the most complicated notions in Political Science. A rudimentary understanding is insufficient because state power is not merely theoretical — it directly affects

8.1 Introduction Citizenship denotes membership of a political community — a distinctive relation shared among relative equals in public life, conferring rights and privileges and generating duties and obligations. Societies such as ancient Greece, Rome, and medieval European city-states gave definitive legal and political expression to this relation. With the rise of modern liberal states,

7.1 Introduction Rights discourse has been among the most prominent features of contemporary political philosophy — it argues that persons, mainly as individuals, are bearers of claims, liberties, and powers which the rest of society must acknowledge. This exaltation of rights has created deep unease regarding duties and obligations necessary for maintaining a just social

6.1 Introduction Justice is of central importance in political practice and theory — invoked in defending or opposing laws, public policies, administrative decisions, civil disobedience, and satyagraha campaigns. The civil rights, civil liberties, dalit, feminist, and environmental movements are all essentially movements for justice. Justice is widely regarded as the first virtue of social institutions

5.1 Introduction Equality is among the most confusing and baffling concepts of social, economic, moral, and political philosophy because it figures in all other concepts — justice, liberty, rights, property, etc. Over two thousand years, Greeks, Stoics, and Christian fathers each stressed different aspects. Under the impact of liberalism and Marxism, equality acquired new connotations.

4.1 Introduction Gerald MacCallum (1967) defined liberty as a triadic concept — the freedom of an individual X, from an obstacle A, to do B. In other words, X is not restrained by A from doing B. MacCallum argued it was misleading to divide theorists into advocates of negative or positive liberty since all three

3.1 Introduction Rights are social claims that help individuals attain their best selves and develop their personalities. A democratic government can best serve the people by maintaining a system of rights. States never give rights, they only recognise them; governments never grant rights, they only protect them. Rights emanate from society and from peculiar social

2.1 Introduction: The Origins of the Democratic Ideal Etymology: Greek demokratia = demos (people) + kratos (rule) → government in which the people rule, either directly (through personal participation) or indirectly (through elected representatives). Ancient vs. Modern democracy: The key difference lies in how “the people” were defined. In the ancient Greek polity, demos was

Political theory is not an easy or simple enterprise — it is, as John Plamenatz insists, “an elaborate, rigorous, difficult and useful understanding, as much needed as any of science.” The case for studying it rests on a foundational recognition: neither philosophy nor science holds a privileged cognitive status within political theory. All political philosophy