17th September

Maan Ki Baat:

1. Technology has changed the way democracy works - Social media, EVM's and Radio and Television.
2. Now think about how this affects Indian democracy - For example "Maan ki Baat", while it provides a direct connection between people and their representative, it at the same time puts one man in focus which is not the ideal for parliamentary democracy.

 Single point feed:

1. Srilanka, Kashmir , refugee crisis and their link to static is done already.
2. India forming a SPV for investments to CLMV countries - We already started worying about our foreign investments.

15th September

Sri Lanka plans a new statue :

1. Improvement in internal conditions of SAARC nations will improve future prospects of SAARC - Same goes with Pakistan, Afghanistan and even India [Right wing communalism].
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3. UNHRC has the power to name and shame and recommend names to UNSC which inturn can take binding actions - Sri Lanka has realised this and has been trying to do a lot to get resolutions to its favor - So UN is not with out its use and clearly the absence of bipolarity can actually yield good results through UN - But remember UN is designed to take into account such bipolarity because league of nations failed because some of the major powers were not given their say in it. So before planning to write utopian answers, you must think as to what is possible and what is not.

BJP accused of Violating poll code:

1. Help me out here - There is no model code of conduct yet for Bihar election even if there was it would have no effect on what central government does, does it?.
2. In such case, can this be shown as a negative point for EC.
3. Also EC does not have in its mandate to increase voter education, even though it does that work.
4. Let's see what SC has to say about the Haryana law.

Single point feed:

1. "Hindi Divas" and the effort to make Hindi official language at UN - Good point in social movement question related to language, regionalism, Federalism - Basically shows the unanswered questions of the exact nature of Indian national culture much like the secularism.
2. Although Human rights has gained near universal acceptance it has not overcome concepts such as national security and power - Refugee crisis in Europe, Fishermen arrest and subsequent release as a gesture of good will.
3. Young candidates will dominate the list - Changing profile of legislators indicating a young India - Think about the consequences such might have Ex: Some argue that Young will have better foreign relations since they are not bogged down by past experiences.

Mock questions based on strategy

1. The liberal root of individuality is slowly giving away to an ideology based on communal recognition which is the cause for the failure of multi Culturalism in Europe? Do you agree? Discuss.

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2. Critically examine the statement that Marxism is more similar to Anarchism than socialism?

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3. Examine the contemporary relevance of basic tenants of Marxism-Socialism?

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4. What do you understand by Fabian and Scientific socialism?

14th september

Gujarat calls Hardik for talks:

1. He wanted to protest using Dandi march - This signifies how political culture effects the political process in a country - Think about other political culture we inherited both from independence and pre-independence era.
2. National Backward Class Commission is nowhere in the picture even though it has to decide on which community is backward/not.
3. One might argue that they are not looking for backward class recognition but merely reservation - In that case this indicates - Even though market increased the avenues, they are still not considerable when compared to the needed and hence the fight for the scarce - Pre Independence Muslim Vs Hindu competition.
4. Last year general election, everybody assumed a trend in electoral behavior towards development of India and not on caste, religious basis - Well, not long after we are seeing agitations such as these.

UNSC reforms:

1. As far as UNSC reform goes - The only question is whether it should be "Club of privileged and powerful" or "Unified for Consensus".
2. World right now runs in a national interest mode and not consensus - So entrenched parties might try and broaden the national interest to more countries which they think are aligned to them rather than giving away to consensus - An utopian ideal atleast for now.
3. Also read about UN reforms - And when answering such questions, think about what the objective of the reform should be and you will be able to write answers which makes sense.

Single point feed:

1. Killing of rape victims by the accused - I don't know how to link but we all should know it just for the sake of knowing it.
2. Radical left - Open doors to refugees, Economic policy which favors distribution heavily and although cannot reject private property, will be not market friendly - The only problem with radial anything is unity - But remember these days difference between left and right is greatly reduced and perhaps a radical ideology such as these will both distinguish left and provide voters a real "other way".
3. Different Islamic organizations have pledged their allaince to ISIS which gives it a sort of global image - A collective in security which can only be tackled by collective security.

11th september:

Indian diplomacy faces tough test: 

1. The mere presence of Vienna convention, where diplomats are given absolute immunity points to the realist assumption of every state for itself. It shows the inability, albeit at the time of its formation, a lack of trust to solve cases through negotiations but rather escape each other by giving by immunity.
2. Think about how this convention is applicable in 21st century where there is more Globalization than ever and there is a start in the growth of cosmopolitan culture.
3. Finally, everyone's talks about how every nation just follows its national interest but forget how national interest of one nation can be intertwined with other nations or how two conflicting sets of national interests puts pressure on the country. Case in point.

Devil in the details:

1. Sovereignty - Shared or unitary are not necessarily good or bad. It depends on where this sovereign power is drawn from i.e what gives it legitimacy.
2. The increasing problem is that the increasing legitimacy is based on ethnic lines in Telangana, Nagaland or many other places.
3. So if question asked in this area - We should not forget the important point that constitution should be the basis of whatever that happens and so long as it is within this ambit, we should be able to respect that.

Single point feed:

1. The growth in racial violence - USA, South Africa, incident in India - All these can be attributed to the human rights concept in global concerns - This is quite different in that human rights movement is generally seen in a way of expanding those rights from countries with to countries without. But this flawed functioning of human rights rises questions as to the actual functioning of human rights in the established countries - Think more about it.
2. Protests against Saudi embassy in India by AIDWA - Women movement knows no national boundary - Think about similar movement like that - Does it point towards a growing cosmopolitan culture? or it is minute when seen as to how many people actually endorse it?.
3. Already more Afghan security forces have died than the entire coalition soldiers dead during the decade - This increased spurt of violence will hasten Afghanistan into solution one which might be tilted to the benefit of Taliban.So while Pak-China-Afghanistan are trying to broker a deal India must ensure that there is security in the Afghanistan - Even if this means providing military equipment.
4. As already mentioned, the fight now is because of strategic bipolarity and not ideological.

10th september

Australian Panel for more safeguards:

1. Growing consciousness about nuclear weapons and technology in developed world - Japan, Germany and Australia.
2. Although it did not emerge as a unified movement yet,this common solidarity can be termed as a new social movement as it is not based on class identities.
3. Same time in global concerns environment - You can point out how environment is becoming an organized political force - Greens in Germany, Australia and not yer very successfully in England.
4. Finally one important thing about nuclear weapons - The mere presence of them with us will never enable us to play a sort of moral leader to the third world because many nations have forgone nuclear weapons and no matter how good a reason you have to maintain them you will always be different from them - Please contemplate more here thinking about this leadership role in global economy and agriculture - Are we truly world leader or national interest propagator like every other country?

Make CAG accountable to parliament:

1. In cases such as these when people propose drastic recommendation, like many others, I look if it is solving the basic problems of CAG. So if it is the change can be termed good and the answer can be written accordingly, if no then the opposite.

TN, Gujarat, Kerala Investors meet:

1. Globalization and its effects - It has reduced licenses and given more freedom to state's to rise funds.
2. Contributed to the unequal growth - As private investment look for better investment opportunities and not social growth.
3. Most importantly, Like many other social movements in India globalization failure can be seen as part of failure of Indian government in the initial stages to achieve its social or economic growth, at least uniformly.

Single Point Feed:

1. Photos on EVM's. to avoid confusion, use of andriod apps.
2. Killing of journalists in countries such India, Bangladesh, Pakistan - Worse still the conviction rate is very low - Just good to remember and can be used in concepts related to rights, democracy.
3. National Register of Census - Assam - Regionalism, Communalisation of politics - While everybody is thinking about world refugee crisis we are unaware of of our making of a crisis - These are general point and so keep thinking and go linking.

Strategy for Political Science Optional - Mains

                             

Hello all, Prelims are over and we all are thinking about our next big challenge [Mains]. The problem is that no matter how good knowledgeable we think we are or how good we feel we have written the paper there is always a certain level of uncertainty. This is especially true for optional subjects. So all we can do is keep preparing and in the path keep improving ourselves. For us online preparees, it is us each other and sites like IASbaba that will help us do that.

So having found very less for political science in the internet, I decided to share my strategy with you out there and hope to benefit from it.

The Actual Strategy:

Paper 1- Section A:

This here is mostly static portion and there are many recommended books as such for this. The most common and effective being

1. OP Gauba - Introduction to political theory.
2. Rajeev Bhargava - Political theory.
3. VP Verma - Modern Indian political thought.
4. Andrew Heywood - Political ideologies.
5. IGNOU material on political thought.

I think the key to mastering this portion is understanding the basics very thoroughly and logically. That we can write dynamic answers. But we often doubt ourselves if we have reached that point. So i have followed a method to check myself

1. To make sure I have understood different political thoughts properly I have gone through IGNOU material - Now these are written in a complicated way but when you have a good grasp on basics they make excellent reading - You can even start directly from them but just make sure to keep googling stuff and not get disappointed initially.
2. For the other concepts such as rights, democracy, ideologies - These parts I think newspaper play a major role. Because we will only be able to connect the news to these concepts if we understood the basics correctly. This is why I am trying this http://nottatti.blogspot.in/  initiative. Helps me understand and also revise.

Paper 1 - Section B:

The classic book list goes like this

1. DD Basu - Constitution.
2. Laxmikanth - Indian Constitution.
3. Oxford.Indian politics student edition 
4. IGNOU.
5. Bipin Chandra - Indian struggle for independence 

Now this part is pretty much static with dynamic links not so hard to find as most of the important news will some how be connected to these topics. Just make sure to go through all the topics in the syllabus and form some short notes in each one. For example recently there is a call for education body on lines of EC. So if after adding the static part, you can point out this as the awesomeness of EC or at the same time you can also point this out as the lack of faith in government structure to handle government and so the call for a independent body like EC.

So the key lies in spinning things to the benefit of answer. Just make sure you take a little extra time while reading newspaper. It will go a long way to add marks. Again, I am trying this http://nottatti.blogspot.in/  initiative to benefit through your help into doing this right.

Paper 2 - Section A:

The Classic list

1. IGNOU for comparative politics.
2. http://kkhsou.in/main/polscience/approaches_polscience.html - This is awesome and covers very good basics.
3. Andrew Heywood - Global politics.

I know people suggest other books for international relations, But I am confident that Andrew Heywood will suffice, because it gives examples and explains in a lively and dynamic way. The book is big but goes like a novel. Also seeing the last year paper, I think the dynamic and historical knowledge is playing a bigger role which can only be achieved by contemplating on concepts and Heywood.

Paper 2 - Section B:

This part is as everybody knows is very dynamic. But first the book list

1. David Malone - Does the elephant Dance.
2. Rajeev Sikri - Indian foreign policy.
3. IGNOU material.

Here too the key lies in picking the important words from the syllabus such as continuity, change, determinants and looking at everything in that perspective. "Akand Bharath" concept can be used as determinant in foreign policy - UNSC votes - Political rallies - Political leader's relations - Everything and anything can be used as long as you can link it to some contemporary news.

Final Note [Very important - Please read]:

I know that I have missed some important books, but I truly believe that if you can read the books that I have read [Everything mentioned except the highlighted ones], I believe you will get the static part right. So keep thinking about them when reading news and I am hopeful that we will gain the extra edge.

Also of you have seen I have mentioned IGNOU everywhere. That is because they are beautiful and offer wide sets of examples for every topic, not just the concepts but examples. These can be valuable while writing answers. So please go through them as if you are reading a novel, they wont take much time if you read like one or two topics per day. 

All the being said, I have to end this by saying that I have never yet written the exam yet and this year is going to be my first attempt. So please bear that in mind and this effort by me is more in the hope for seeing things more clearly by myself through your help than to help others [Not that I don't want that].

Thankyou IASbaba for giving this opportunity.