Unit 2 of Political Science – II (syllabus: Module II — the concept of political obligation and the command-and-obedience relationship; the grounds of obligation and Raphael’s view; the divine right, social contract, force and prescriptive possession theories with Marx; the problem of obedience to unjust laws, the right of resistance and dissent in Green, Gandhi, Laski, King and Mandela, and satyagraha; and punishment — its objectives, Kant’s retributivism, Bentham’s utilitarianism, the deterrent and preventive approaches, the Gandhian reformative view, and implicit bias in the justice delivery system). Below: what the unit covers, the provisions it turns on, and the cases an examiner expects you to name.
What this unit covers
- Why do people obey the law, and is habitual obedience a sufficient explanation?
- What does D. D. Raphael say the state is for, and what limits does he set on it?
- Why do the force theory and the divine right of kings fail as theories of political obligation?
- Which of the social contract theories creates a limited political obligation, and why?
- What are the three theories of punishment, and why did Kant reject two of them?
- When is a law unjust, and what follows from calling it so?
- When may a citizen resist the state, and what limits does the right carry?
- What are the conditions of a legitimate satyagraha?
Treat that list as a self-test: recite each topic's rule from memory before you open its cases.