The nature and scope of political theory

Introduction

Political theory reflects systematically on the ideas and principles that shape constitutions, governments and social life. Human beings can reason, reflect on what they do and share with others their ideas of what is good and desirable, and political theory grows out of those two capacities. Its nature is the kind of inquiry it is; its scope is the range of questions and subjects it covers. The DU syllabus opens with exactly this pair, the nature, scope and relevance of political theory.

Nature and scope

1. It is normative as well as analytical. Political theory does not only describe how institutions work; it asks what ought to be done and which arrangements can be justified by reasons. The syllabus itself names the aim as to analyse political arguments and debates normatively and critically.

2. It is argument-based. Its method is to examine the reasoning of thinkers (from Plato and Aristotle to Rousseau, Marx, Gandhi and Ambedkar, in the NCERT list) rather than to collect opinions.

3. It is concept-centred. Its core subject-matter is a family of concepts (liberty, equality, justice, rights, democracy, secularism) and principles such as the rule of law, separation of powers and judicial review.

4. It is historical, empirical and evaluative at once. The syllabus asks for a historical, normative and empirical understanding of the subject: ideas must be placed in their time, tested against facts about how institutions work, and judged against values.

5. It is practical. It studies how ideals such as freedom or equality are present (or absent) in schools, offices and government institutions.

6. It works on ordinary meanings. Unlike mathematics, where a triangle has one definition, political concepts carry many definitions, because their meaning depends on context; theorists start from how a concept such as equality is understood and used in ordinary language, then examine the rival meanings systematically.

Scope of political theory

1. Institutions and everyday life. Its field reaches from government offices to schools, shops and buses, where it asks how far freedom or equality are actually present, and to the families, colleges and shopping malls where people meet discrimination of many kinds.
2. The basic questions of political life. How should society be organised? Why do we need government? What does the state owe its citizens, and what do citizens owe one another?.
3. The debates of the present. The syllabus asks students to reflect on contemporary debates, and for this paper it names protective discrimination and fairness, the feminist public-private debate, and censorship and its limits.
4. Concepts and principles. Its core is a family of concepts, among them liberty, equality, justice, rights and fraternity, and citizenship, development, nationalism and secularism, together with principles such as the rule of law, separation of powers and judicial review.
5. Thinkers and traditions. It examines the arguments of thinkers past and present, from Plato and Aristotle to Rousseau, Marx, Gandhi and Ambedkar, whose ideas found their way into constitutions such as India's; the syllabus adds ancient Greek and ancient Indian political theory.
6. The future as well as the present. Theorists reflect on current political experience and point out trends and possibilities; new technology, for example, opens new dimensions of freedom and new threats to it, and raises the question of how much regulation of the internet is justified.
7. Policy and citizenship. Its questions are practical: when equality of opportunity is enough, when special treatment is needed and for how long, which give guidelines for policy on education and employment. It is useful to politicians, bureaucrats, teachers, lawyers, judges, activists and journalists, and to every citizen who votes or speaks in a gram sabha, because its objective is to train citizens to think rationally about political questions.

Conclusion

Political theory is by nature normative, argumentative and concept-centred, joining historical, normative and empirical understanding. Its scope is correspondingly wide: the basic questions of government and citizenship, the concepts and principles of political life, the thinkers who have argued about them, and the institutions and present-day debates in which those ideas are tested.