Definitions Polity

  

Political theory	“Political philosophies are intellectual and moral creations. They contain high ideals, easy slogans, dubious facts, crude propaganda, and sophisticated theories.” -- C. Wright Mills   Political theory is a never-ending conversation among theorists. And while the greatest of the debates are never resolved, the criticisms which the writers make of each other are always most vivid and illuminating.... Politics is, after all, the most democratic of sciences. -- Andrew Hacker   “All sorts of political activities are influenced by the process of ‘change’ or ‘keep the situations as it is ‘whenever we want to keep it situation as it is.’ Whenever we want to keep it situation as it is, then our objective is to stop any bad change and when we are bringing changes, then we want to get better. This means that all types of political activities are effected by ‘Better’ or ‘Bad’ thoughts but behind both these lies the thought for good.” --- Leo Tolstoy
State	State "The State is the keystone of the social arch. It moulds the form and substance of the myriad human lives with whose destinies it is charged." --- Laski   The state does not create law of its own will; law exists prior to the state; the state grasps it and gives it a definite shape. -- Robert M MacIver   The state comes into the picture only when the interests of one group encroach upon another. The state is only one of such associations, meant to serve definite interests— its authority is limited like its obligations. -- Robert M MacIver   "The West" created the cultural concept of "the East," which allowed the Europeans to suppress the peoples of the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, and of Asia in general, from expressing and representing themselves as discrete peoples and cultures. -- Edward Said (orientalism)
Justice	Justice Each person possess inviolability founded on the principle of justice that even the welfare of entire society can not override. –John Rawls   If the society is not based on the principles of justice it will neither have peace nor stability. --John Rawls   Natural distribution is neither just nor unjust, it is the institution of society controlled by human beings makes it just or unjust. --- John Rawls   "Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all” – John Rawls   Laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well arranged must be abolished, if they are unjust. – John Rawls   Justice can not be secured by isolated individuals seeking personal profit but by those who create a deeper commonality through shared selfunderstanding and mutual affection. - Michael Sandel   The well-being of the individual depends on the good of his community and therefore, the recognition and protection of the group or cultural rights of the community is not less important than the just distribution of the freedom and equality rights to the individuals.- --Charles Taylor   Progressive taxation is bonded labour. It goes against the principle of dignity.-- Robert Nozick   State should be minimum. It should be limited to the security against the use of force, theft and problems in implementing the agreements. More than these work will nullify the rights of a person, so they will be unjust. – Robert Nozick
Equality	“Equality is basically a process of equalization. So first of all equality implies to the deficiency of special right. Secondly, it implies that everyone should get enough opportunities for growth.” --- Laski   Inequality is multi-dimensional and the elimination of one aspect of inequality often leads to the exaggeration of other aspects of social, political and cultural inequalities. - - Bryan S Turner   ‘The purpose of society would be frustrated at the outset if the nature of a mathematician met with identical response with that of a bricklayer’. --- Laski   The principle of equality, accordingly means that whatever conditions are guaranteed to me in the form of rights shall also and in the same measure be guaranteed to others and that whatever rights are given to others shall also be given to me’. –Ernest Barker   The right to equality proper is a right to the equal satisfaction of basic human needs, including the need to develop and use capacities which are specifically human’ – D D Raphael   Equal resources means the possibility of having equitable resources so that everyone can carry out their conception of what is good or well being.-- Ronald Dworkin   Equality before law does not necessarily mean that the law will treat all alike, but rather it determines that the law will be within the reach of everybody. –J R Lucas   Nobody will be small enough that he will be unable to take the shelter of law and nobody will be big enough that he will not be accountable to law. ---- J.R. Lucas   Political equality means the authority which exerts that power must be subject to rules of democratic governance. – Laski   “If we want to maintain the political stability and democratic form of government then we have to bring economic equality by appropriate distribution of land, reforms in tax process and extension of education facilities.” --Robert Dahl   ‘By equality we should understand that not the degree of power and riches be absolutely identical for everybody, but that no citizen be wealthy enough to buy another and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.’ ---- Rousseau   In the country in which wealth and means of production are in the hands of some limited people, there money completely over powers the politics, culture educational institutes and judiciary. – Laski   From the fact that people are very different, it follows that if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position and that the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. –Hayek
Liberty	Liberty   Liberty demands that none should be placed at the mercy of others. By securing opportunities for all to be their best selves, liberty makes equality real. Without liberty, equality lapses into dull uniformity. –R H- Tawney   Human consciousness postulates liberty; liberty involves rights; rights demand the state. -- T H Green   'Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure'. -Jeremy Bentham   Individual tends to equilibriate himself with his social environment by adaptation, and by inheritance of that adaptation, until he attains, in a perfect equilibrium.-- Herbert Spencer ( concept of negative liberty)   An interest in liberty begins when men have ceased to be overwhelmed by the problem of sheer existence; it is when they have a chance of leisure, economic sufficiency and leisure for thought, these are primary conditions of free man.—Laski   An interest in liberty begins when men have ceased to be overwhelmed by the problem of sheer existence; it is when they have a chance of leisure, economic sufficiency and leisure for thought, these are primary conditions of free man. -- R H- Tawney   There is only one solution of liberty and it lies in equality. Liberty without equality can degenerate into a license of the few.’ --- Pollard   Whatever claims be made in the name of equality, it cannot be viewed in isolation, for the principle stands by the principles of liberty and fraternity. – Ernest Barker   “We are entering an era of political equality. But economically and socially we remain a deeply unequal society. Unless we resolve this contradiction, inequality will destroy our democracy.” ---Dr. B R Ambedkar
Rights	Rights “Rights are those circumstances of human life without which, usually a person cannot do the best development of his personality. – Laski   “This is that power of working of a man to achieve his objectives which is defines by the social community on the condition that he will do the welfare of the community also through these works.” -- T.H. Green   Legal right is such a benefit which is recognized and secured by the legal rule and to follow it is a legal duty.” – Salmond   “Right is such a claim of the individual which is recognized by the society and is implemented by the state” – Bosanke   To help in the development of the personal power of the individual is the ultimate goal and supreme political value of the state.” –Ernest Baker   An individual is boar with certain rights by birth. This means that these are not dependent on society or state. These rights are given by the God to his children as he gives them eye, nose, ear, hand etc. --John Lock   Restrained government is the best way to protect rights. -- John Lock   “There can be but one supreme power, which is the legislative, to which all the rest are and must subordinate, yet the legislative being only a fiduciary power to act for certain ends, there remains still in the people a supreme power to remove or alter the legislative when they find the legislative act contrary to the trust reposed in them.” — John Locke   “Every rights has to prove its reason in some such objectives of the society which cannot be achieved without rights. --T H Green   “Rights, properly so called, are the creatures of law properly so called; real laws give birth to real rights. -- Jeremy Bentham   People use right, not only as the members of the state but as member of society also. Thus, to limit the right to only state is to destroy the personality of an individual and its protection. – Laski   Rights are not universal, these are limited to the time and circumstances and are related to the specific social group. The basis of rights is a historical process instead of intellect and tolerance and a specific individual has no role in its construction. ---Historical theory of rights   "Men must learn to subordinate their self-interest to the common welfare. The privileges of some must give way before the rights of all."—Laski   “Real rights are the conditions of the social welfare and the reason of the various rights is one the fact that what role they play for the coordinated development of the society” -- Hobbhouse   “Rights are those circumstances of social life, without which a person cannot attain his best – Laski   Main source of rights is the rule of Natural Right of self-ownership which means that every individual should be considered as a means in itself. – Nozick   Every person has a personal free area in which there should no interference without his consent. ---Nozick   There is no need to do welfare of the poor from the things produced by the able people because” if I have complete right on myself, then a sole owner of my capability and the produce made by my capability.” Thus, it is wrong to re-distribute these sources by tax process. –Nozick   Rights are necessary conditions without which no individual can in general seek to be at his best. – Herold Laski   Every state is known by the rights it maintains. – Herold Laski   The social order which is not based on claims of person is based on sand. – Herold Laski
Democracy	Democracy It is also on social system which having given permission to select major part of population, governments post candidature and given opportunity to affects main decisions. ---S M Lipset   Democratic form is such on institutional management of reaching of political decision that gives on opportunity to get his general interest by selecting their representative.   Democracy is only a instrument of, selection of government, to rule or make law by different methods and taking political decision. – Macpherson   In a democracy, political decisions are taken by the 'leadership', not by the people themselves; and there is a free competition among the leaders for winning people's votes. -- Joseph A. Schumpeter
Power, ideology and  legitimacy	Power, ideology, legitimacy "Political power, properly to called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another," -----Engels   “There is a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power that ceased only in death.” --Hobbes   "The proper scope of political science is not the study of the state or of any other specific institutional complex, but the investigation of all associations insofar as they can be shown to exemplify the problem of power" ------Frederick Watkins   "It is with power in society that political science is primarily concerned—its nature, basis, processes, scope and results ... The 'focus of interest' of the political scientist is clear and unambiguous; it centres on the struggle to gain or retain power, to exercise power or influence over others, or to resist that exercise" ---------- William A. Robson   “ Political science is 'the study of the shaping and sharing of power” H. Lasswell and A. Kaplan   “Power denotes the ability of a person to fulfil his desires or to achieve his objectives” -- Bertrand Russell   “Power is 'the ability to get one's wishes carried out despite opposition” -- H.V. Wiseman   The question of power cannot be evaded or brushed aside, because it is the key question determining everything in a revolution’s development, and in its foreign and domestic politics” – Lenin   “The passing of state power from one class to another is the first principal, the basic sign of revolution, both in strictly scientific and in the practical political meaning of the term”. – Lenin   "Where genuine power is absent, violence may emerge to fill the gap." -- Hannah Arendt   “Only power but never violence can create legitimate authority” --Hannah Arendt   ‘Power is everywhere’, diffused and embodied in discourse, knowledge and ‘regimes of truth’. -- Michel Foucault   ‘Power is everywhere’ and ‘comes from everywhere’ so in this sense is neither an agency nor a structure. Instead it is a kind of ‘metapower’ or ‘regime of truth’ that pervades society, and which is in constant flux and negotiation. -- Michel Foucault   “Ideology is a false consciousness” -- Karl Marx   “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas” -- Karl Marx   “Ideology is the characteristic of totalitarianism; it has nothing to do in an open society” -- Karl Popper   ‘‘In political activity men sail a boundless and bottomless sea’’ -- Michael Oakeshott   “The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master unless he transforms strength into right and obedience into duty.” --- Rousseau   Rule was legitimate only when it operated to the benefit of the whole society rather than in the selfish interests of the rulers. – Aristotle   “Power is the ability to get one’s wishes carried out despite opposition”. -- H V Wiseman   “Power as the capacity to command services or compliance of others” -- Robert M MacIver
Political Ideologies : Liberalism	Liberalism   Positive freedom consists in acting according to reason, achieving self-realization or self-perfection. ---Thomas Hill Green   An individual is free when he has the capacity to fulfill the law of his being. --Thomas Hill Green
Fabian socialism	Fabian socialism “Success lies in a steady advance than in the possibilities offered by a catastrophic crash”. -- Eduard Bernstein   "For the right moment you must wait, as Fabius did, most patiently, when warring against Hannibal, though many censured his delays; but when the time comes you must strike hard, as Fabius did, or your waiting will be in vain and fruitless." --Eduard Bernstein
Marxism	“Everything is and is not, for everything is fluid, is constantly changing, constantly coming into being and passing away. All is flux and nothing stays still. Nothing endures but change.” –Engels   'Matter' (and not the idea) was the essence of universe, and that social institutions were the manifestation of changing material conditions. – Marx   First premise of all human existence, and therefore of all history, is that men must be in a position to live in order to be able to “make history”. -- Marx
Feminism	Feminism I do not want women to have power over men, but power over themselves – Simone de Beauvoir   "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." -- Simone de Beauvoir   Femininity is a construction of civilization, a reflection not of “essential” differences in men and women but of differences in their situation. -- Simone de Beauvoir   Human beings are motivated by powerful emotions, their ‘will’ rather than the rational mind, and in particular by what he called the ‘will to power’. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
	“Each nation is animated by its collective spirit, its Volksgeist, a product of its unique history, culture and particularly language. Communities are therefore organic or natural entities, shaped not by the calculations and interests of rational individuals but by innate loyalties and emotional bonds forged by a common past. -- Johann Gottfried Herder   “If the testing ground of human existence is competition and struggle, then the ultimate test is war, ‘an unalterable law of the whole of life” ---Hitler   “War is to men what maternity is to women.” ---Mussolini   ‘Capitalism is a system by which capital uses the nation for its own purposes. Fascism is a system by which the nation uses capital for its own purposes.’ -----Oswald Mosley   ‘Everything for the state; nothing against the state; nothing outside the state.’ -------Mussolini Indian Political thinker
MK Gandhi	"Truth is God and God is Truth." --M K Gandhi   ‘For me truth is the sovereign principle which includes numerous other principles. -- M K Gandhi   Where there is Truth, there is also is knowledge which is true. Where there is no Truth, there can be no true knowledge. -- M K Gandhi   Socialism is a beautiful word and so far as I am aware in socialism all the members of society are equal none low, none high. -- M K Gandhi   The individual has a soul but the state is a soulless machine, the stale can never be weaned away from violence to which it owes its existence” It can never be weaned away from violence because its basis has been force." -- M K Gandhi   The state is not an end in itself, but a means of enabling people to better their conditions in every department of life. -- M K Gandhi   “I look upon on increase in the power of the state with the greatest fear, because although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of all progress. -- M K Gandhi   ‘Democracy is something that gives the weak the same as the strong” ---- M K Gandhi
Democracy	“Democracy in this country is like a summer sapling. Without social unity, the roots of sapling cannot be strengthened. If social unity is not achieved this summer sapling of democracy, will be rooted out with gust of summer wind”. –Dr. B R Ambedkar   Democratic society is a prerequisite of a democratic government. -- Dr. B R Ambedkar   “Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellowmen” ---- Dr. B R Ambedkar   We must make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the lease of it social democracy”. ------ Dr. B R Ambedkar
Western Political thinkers	Western Political thinkers Justice is proper stationing and non-interference in each others work. ----Plato   Covenants without swords are but mere words. – Hobbes   A government which violates its limitations is not worthy of obedience. ---John Locke
Machiavelli	Men are ungrateful, fickle, deceitful, cowardly and avaricious.” –Machiavelli   “Men love at their pleasure, but fear at the pleasure of the prince, who should therefore depend upon that which in his own, not upon that which is of others. Yet he may be feared without being hated if he refrains from touching their property and their woman kind of his subjects, and if he avoid bloodshed excepting when there is good cause and manifest justification for it is in as much as men more easily forget the loss of their father than of their property.” –Machiavelli   “The end of the state is material prosperity.” ---Machiavelli   The ruler must imitate the fox and lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from the traps and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves”. ---Machiavelli   “The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often even more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are. ---Machiavelli
Aristotle	State come into existence for the sake of good life and continues for the sake of good life.-------Aristotle   State is highest of all associations. -------Aristotle   Man is by nature a political animal. -------Aristotle   “The state is by nature clearly prior to the family and the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part” -------Aristotle   It is unjust to treat equals unequally, it is unjust to treat unequals equally. –Aristotle.   “For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, same are marked out for subjection other for rule”. --Aristotle (Politics)   “The rule of law is preferable to that of a single citizen: even if it be the better course to have individuals ruling, they should be made law-guardians or ministers of the laws”. ------Aristotle   ‘The goodness in the sphere of politics is justice, and justice contains what tends to promote the common interest.” ---Aristotle   Inequality, arose when equals were treated unequally, and unequals equally. ------Aristotle   Plato was a friend; Truth was a greater friend’. –Aristotle   The authority of statesman is different from the authority of master. ------Aristotle   The good of the many had to be based on the good of the self. ------Aristotle   “The many are more incorruptible than the few; they are like the greater quantity of water which is less easily corrupted than a little.” ― Aristotle,   Law is a reason without passion. ---Aristotle   Good ruler ought to be worldly-wise rather than wise in the world of ideas. ---Aristotle
Marxism	“Everything is and is not, for everything is fluid, is constantly changing, constantly coming into being and passing away. All is flux and nothing stays still. Nothing endures but change.” – Engels   The ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought. —Karl Marx   “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their existence”. –Marx   “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. –Marx   “Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another”. --Marx   “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas. –Marx
JS Mills	It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied, it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. –J S Mill   Everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit.—John Stuart Mill   “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. – J S Mill   “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind”. –J S Mill   Men should not be trusted with absolute power. Such absolute power within the family and marriage only led to brutalization of women. – J S Mill   “It is only by the collision of adverse opinion that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied”. –J S Mill   “All the worth which the human being possess, all spiritual reality, he possess” only through the state”. –Hegel   The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom. – Hegel
Views on state	· Plato: the state is a macrocosm in which the individual can find his proper place and perform the duties for which he is best fitted. Aristotle: the purpose of the state is mainly ethical. The state is ' a community of equals, aiming at the best life possible.' Hobbes: the purpose of the state to maintain order and protect the people and protect the right of property. Locke: regards that the end of Government is the preservation of lives, liberties and estates. Rousseau: the state is a ' social contract' to fulfil the ' general will Bentham: believes the state exists to secure the greatest good of the greatest number. Herbert Spencer: consider the state as ' Joint-stock protection company for mutual assurance.' Marx expects the state to "wither away' after establishing' classless society.' · Laski the state is ' a fellowship of men. Its aim is ' enrichment of common life'. The aim of a state to be the greatest available welfare for the whole population and not for a class.