Subject: Polity

Topic: 01. Basic Concept of Polity

Key Points: Notes:

Elements of a State: Citizenship: is the relationship between an individual and the state to
• Population which an individual is loyal and thus entitled to his or her protection.
• Territory Citizens have certain rights, duties and responsibilities.
• Sovereignty Government: is the political system by which a country or community
• Government is administered and regulated. Government takes decision and makes
laws for the citizen of a country.
Objectives of
Government: Branches of Government:
• Justice • Legislature: lawmaking branch of the government.
• Equality Legislature may be unicameral(Ex: LS) or bicameral (Ex:
• Liberty LS and RS).
• Fraternity • Executive: a person or persons who enforce the laws
and formulate policies for the administration of the
state. Executives are of two types: permanent and
temporary.
• Judiciary: Their task is to interpret the laws, apply the
laws to specific cases and settle all disputes.
What is a Constitution?
• A constitution is primarily a set of rules and principles
specifying how a country should be governed, how power is
distributed and controlled and what citizens possess.
• On the basis of its physical form, a constitution can be
classified into written and unwritten.
• On the basis of amendment procedure, a constitution can be
classified into rigid and flexible.

Functions of the Constitution:

• To provide a set of basic rules
• To specify who has the power to make decisions in the society.
It decides how the government will be constituted.
• To impose certain restriction on the government.
• To enable the government to fulfil the aspirations of a society
and create condition for a just society
Unitary System:
• A unitary government is one in which all the powers are vested
in the national government and the regional governments, if at
all exist, derive their authority from the national government.
• There is no division of powers.
Federal System:
• A federation is usually defined as a compact between two or
more states to establish a new state. Federalism is the idea of
multi-level Government.
• A federal state is the co-existence of two governments. In a
federation there should be clear division of powers.
Democracy:
• Democracy is a form of government in which people’s
participation is of primary importance.
• People may participate either directly or indirectly.
• People shall have the right to decide who would rule them
• It is a system of government which does not make any
discrimination on the basis of caste, religion, sex, birth etc. It
provides equal opportunity.
Parliamentary System:
• It is a democratic form of government in which the party with
the greatest representation in the parliament forms the
government, its leader becomes the prime minister.
• The executive is divided in two parts: Head of the State & Head
of the Government.
• The ministerial responsibility is collective. There is no
separation of personnel between the executive and the
legislature. Ministers are usually members of the Parliament.
Adult Franchise:
• In democratic countries, all adult citizen of certain age without
any distinction of caste, creed, colour, religion, or sex are given
to Right to vote.
Theocratic State:
• Theocratic state is opposed to a secular state. In theocratic
state a particular religion is recognised as state religion.
Coalition Government:
• The government formed by 2 or more parties together sharing
the power is called coalition government. The coalition
government often emerge in a multi-party democratic country
when no single party gets adequate majority to form the
government.
Constitutional Government:
• A constitutional government is that government in which the
exercise of authority is limited by the constitution and it is run
on the basis of provisions of the constitution.
Partyless Democracy:
• In partyless democracy, election is not contested on party lines
but on individual basis. Jai Prakash Narayan has propagated the
idea of Partyless Democracy.
Referendum:
• This is method of collecting people’s opinion on a controversial
issue. This is conducted to feel popular reaction on an issue of
public importance.
Welfare State:
• Welfare state performs multifarious activities and functions to
ensure the Welfare of the people with respect to health,
education social development, creating employment, removal
of poverty and Improvement of the weaker sections of the
society.