Syllabus for
Bachelor of Arts (Political Science)
Academic Year  (2023)

Course Description: 

The advent of media abundance, digital communication, and the Internet cannot be ignored in political discourse. The course aims to give you an advanced understanding of theoretical and applied knowledge in the intersecting fields of politics and communication research. It offers an opportunity to examine the role of communication in politics and applies public communication approaches specifically to electoral politics. That includes the role of media relations in politics, the impact of television on political discourse, political message development, political advertising, ethics in political persuasion, as well as how to interpret public opinion, identify and reach constituencies, and develop political communication strategies and broadly, the impact of political communication on our democratic institutions. 

Course Objectives:

The course aims to help students to;

●understand the ability of changing (social) media habits influence on citizens’ political engagement 

●understand the nature and importance of political communication and its evolution as a discipline. 

●critically reflect on theories in political communication and their general applicability in the context of electoral politics in India.

●analyse new frontiers in the psephology in general and communication stratergies in particular.

The idea of Digital Age, and equating with democracy, e-democracy; Converging areas: Political Marketing; Public speeches, Campaigns, Messaging in the Digital  Age 

Concepts of Media (social media, mass media, press, mass communication), Theories of Media Effects: Agenda-setting theory; framing theory; Politics-media axis: theory of press-state relations; Mediatization of politics theory

Ethics in social media strategies, Consumerization; The Misinformation Crisis; disinformation, IT Act, PCI, Citizens Vs Netizens and Privacy Vs Security.  

Political technologies: Web designing; Video Story telling; cartoons, memes; Digital Political advertising and branding.  

Habermas, 1984. The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume One: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston: Beacon, trans. T. McCarthy

Neumann, W.R. 1986. The Paradoxes of Mass Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Sabato, L. 1981. The Rise of Political Consultants. New York: Basic Books.

Salmore, S.A. and B.G. Salmore. 1985. Candidates, arties and Campaigns: Electoral Politics in America. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press.

Sanders, A. 1986. "Political Parties and the Mass Media," Election Politics, 3:21-25.

Schumpter, J.A. 1943. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper.

Graber, D. (1976). Verbal behavior and politics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Lasswell, H. D., et al. (Eds.) (1949). Language ofpolitics: Studies in quantitative semantics. New York:

George W. Stewart.

Lasswell, H. D., Lerner, D., & de Sola Pool, I. (1952). The comparative study of symbols: An introduction. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institute on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University Press.

Maarek, Ph. J. (1995). Political marketing and communication. London: Libbey.

Nimmo, D., & Swanson, (eds 1990) New directions in Political Communication, London: Sage.

Meadow, R. (1980). Politics as communication. NJ: Norwood.

Schaff, A. (1978). Structuralism and Marxism. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.

Shapiro, M. (1981). Language and political understanding. New Haven: Yale University Press.

The study of politics needs to be understood within the context of the philosophical underpinnings of thinkers as far as back as the Greek civilisation. The preoccupation with political events was at the time linked intrinsically with society and questions of unrest, corruption and misrule were the key concerns among the thinkers.

    The course on Western Political Thought–I seeks to acquaint students with political concerns of philosophers from the political traditions starting from ancient Greece. It highlights how political science, philosophy, society, and law were interlinked and how questions of politics not only addressed procedural issues i.e. types of rule, political structures, but also substantive values of justice, liberty, good rule and a good life.

The course aims to help students to:

• Understand the preoccupation of Western philosophers with political issues and political questions of their times.
• Appreciate the close links that politics shared with ethics and moral values.

Socrates – the quest for truth

Plato – Justice, Best State

Aristotle – Polis, Good Life, Teleology, Critique of Plato

Neo Platonism – an introduction

Cicero – Schools of thought – Epicureanism, Stoicism, Skepticism

St Augustine – Divine rule and purpose, aims of politics

Thomas Aquinas – the centrality of law

Marsilio of Padua

Mirror for Princes literature

Machiavelli – The Prince

Martin Luther King

Jean Bodin

McClelland, J.S. (1998). A History of Western Political Thought. Routledge.

Mukherjee, Subrata and Sushila Ramaswamy. (2011). A History of Political Thought – Plato   to Marx. Prentice Hall India Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Mukhopadhyay, A.K. (1980). Western Political Thought: From Ancient Greeks to Modern Political Scientists. Sage.

Mulgan, R.G. (1977). Aristotle’s Political Theory. Clarendon Press.

Nelson, B. (2008) Western Political Thought. New Delhi: Pearson Longman.

Rappe, Sara. (2000). Reading Neoplatonism, Non Discursive Thinking in the Texts of Plotinus, Proclus and Damascius.  Cambridge University Press.

Skinner, Quentin. (1981). Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Popper, Karl. (1945). The Open Society and its Enemies.

Skinner, Quentin. (1978). The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Vol. I. Cambridge University Press.

Wayper, C.L. (1954) Political Thought. English Universities Press.

This course offers selected classical and modern concepts and theories of Public Administration. It introduces the evolution of public administration as a discipline and the significance of dichotomy between political science and public administration. Specifically, it provides basic concepts and principles like organisation, hierarchy, unity of command, span of control, authority, and responsibility etc. Besides, students learn core theories of public administration and new frontiers in the field of public administration.

Course Objectives:

The course aims to help students to:

• understand the nature and importance of public administration and its evolution as a discipline. 
• critically reflect on theories in public administration and their general applicability in governmental context.
• analyse new frontiers in the field of administrative science in general and administrative behaviour in particular.

Meaning, approaches, Scope and Significance. Evolution of Discipline. Public Administration and its distinction with Political Science and Management.

Organization. Hierarchy. Unity of Command. Span of Control. Authority and Responsibility. Coordination. Supervision. Centralization and Decentralisation. Line, Staff, and Auxilliary Agencies.

Taylor’s Scientific Management. Fayol’s Administrative Management. Herbert A. Simon on Decision Making in an organization, David Easton and Chester Bernard’s Systems Approach.

Elton Mayo’s Theory of Human Relations. Socio-psychological Approach: Views of Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg, Views of Douglas McGregor and Victor Vroom, Follett’s Theory of Conflict and Integration.

State Vs Market Debate. Public-Private Partnership. New Public Management Perspective. E-Governance. SMART Governance. Digital Administration. Corporate Governance.

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

This course provides an overview of analytical concepts and tools used in the study of a variety of political systems. This includes the descriptive and analytical examination of political systems generally classified as democratic, non-democratic, or undergoing transition. Particular attention is paid to government institutions and political processes, current leadership, and major public policy of those selected systems under review.

Course Objectives:

The course aims to help students to:

• Relate terms and concepts associated with the academic study of comparative political systems.
• Compare and contrast the foundations of legitimacy on which political regimes rest, such as the norms and rules of ordered society; different forms of citizen participation; group behavior; or institutional activities in these political systems.
• Discuss the political history, institutions, political cultures, political parties, interest groups, political issues, cleavages, and the major political conflicts of various contemporary political systems. 

Nature, Evolution and Scope of Comparative Politics. Political System - Meaning and Nature, Political Modernization, Political Change. Methods and Levels of Analysis— Historical institutionalism. Rational choice institutionalism. Sociological institutionalism. System Theories, Cultural Theories, Class Theories, Development Theories, “Cybernetics”, “Black Box” theory 

Salient features – Executive – Legislature – Judiciary – Local Government - Party system- Pressure Groups- Political Participation. Case study of US/Costa Rica

Salient features – Executive – Legislature – Judiciary – Local Government - Party system- Pressure Groups- Political Participation. Case Study of Britain and Switzerland

Salient features – Executive – Legislature – Judiciary – Local Government - Party system- Pressure Groups- Political Participation. Case Study of Sri Lanka and France

Salient features – Executive – Legislature – Judiciary- Communist Party – Local Government -Political Participation.  Case Study of China.

Powell, G.B., Dalton, R. J. & Strom, Kaare, Comparative Politics Today: A World View, (11th ed.), Pearson, 2014.

Almond, G. et.al, Comparative Political Today: A world view (7th ed.), Pearson Education India, 2000

Strong, C.F. Modern Political Constitutions, London: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd. 1972.

Evans, G. & J. Newnham The Dictionary of World Politics: A Reference Guide to Concepts, Ideas and Institutions (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992).

Hauss, C. (2018). Comparative Politics: Domestic Responses to Global Challenges. Cengage Learning.

Lim, T. C. (2016). Doing Comparative Politics: An Introduction to Approaches and Issues

Dreyer, J. T. (2018). China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition. Routledge.

Rajah, A. R. S. (2017). Government and Politics in Sri Lanka: Biopolitics and Security. Taylor & Francis

Green, D. (2012). Comparative Politics of the Third World: Linking Concepts and Cases.

Caramani, D. (2011). Comparative Politics. Oxford University Press.

Pierson, P., & Skocpol, T. (2011). The Transformation of American Politics: Activist Government and the Rise of Conservatism. Princeton University Press

Venugopal, R. (2018). Nationalism, Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. Cambridge University Press

The mass media is the primary means by which citizens learn about political issues, events and actors. While the media plays a key role in domestic politics, we should expect that the media are particularly important in informing citizens and shaping their opinions regarding issues of complex international matters where direct experience may be somewhat limited. For this reason, we investigate the effects of differential media coverage on public opinion of major contemporary global and national issues. However, many contend that the media are not simply how information is transferred but constitute political actors themselves. We therefore also explore the causal factors that may shape media coverage of global affairs and how this varies across media organisations and across time and space.

CourseObjectives

The course aims to help students to:

• To critically evaluate the evolution of global media from the yesteryear to the present looking at developments in the political and social sphere.

• Engage with different empirical and theoretical approaches to analysing mass media and public opinion.  

• Identify causal mechanisms by which media coverage can (and cannot) shape public opinion on global issues and foreign policy.  

• Compare and analyse the sources of influence on media coverage of international politics, and understand and articulate the effects of media framing and agenda-setting on contemporary climate change and immigration debate.

• Media and international communication

• The advent of popular media

• A brief overview of Nazi Propaganda in the inter-war Years

•  Global Conflict and Global Media

• World Wars and Media Coverage post-1990

• Rise of Al Jazeera, The Gulf Wars: CNN’s satellite transmission

• Embedded Journalism; 9/11 and implications for the media, Egpytian Revolution - 2011, role of media during Covid 19

• Media and Cultural Globalization (McDonaldization)

• Cultural Imperialism

• Cultural Politics: media hegemony and Global Cultures 

• Homogenization, the English language Local/Global, Local/Hybrid 

• Media and the Global market

• Discourses of Globalisation: barrier-free economy, LPG in India,  multinationals, media in the 90s in India, its cultural influence technological developments

• Digital divide; Media conglomerates and monopolies: Ted Turner/Rupert Murdoch

• Global and regional integrations.

• Media and the Indian market

• Indian Constitution and Article 19

• Press Freedom: Global, Indian Context

• Media House: Political news coverage

• Writing opinion pieces, letters to the editor, editorials, blogs

Yahya, R.K. & Snow, N. (2004) War, Media and Propaganda- A Global Perspective, Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Ranganathan & M. Rodrigues(2010) Indian Media in a Globalised World, Sage publications.

Sage, New Delhi.

Lyn, G and David, M. (2009)Media and Society into the 21st Century: A Historical Introduction. (2nd Edition) Wiley-Blackwell, pp.82-135, 208-283.

(*Mid Semester examination will be conducted for 50 marks and converted to 25 marks

 *End Semester examination will be conducted for 50 marks and converted to 30 marks). 

The students are required to undertake an internship as part of their BA Political Science Programme. It is a mandatory Internship for all the students going to THIRD Semester and FIFTH Semester. All Students ging to THIRD semester are expected to intern at grassroot level public institutions for a period of not less than 26 working days (excluding Holidays or days the organization does not function) at any one of the following organizations-

·       Panchayati Raj Institutions at 1^st and 2^nd tiers i.e., Gram Panchayat and Mandal/Taluk Panchayat

·       Municipality at 1^st and 2^nd tiers i.e., Nagar Panchayat/Municipal Council.

·       In 1^st and 2^nd tiers, students can prefer to intern in Panchat Secretariat (Administrative field), Under Panchayati President (Political field) or in Nyaya Panchayat (Judicial field)

·       Party Offices at the level of Village/Mandal/Taluka

·       Political party office/MP office/MLA office/Union/State Minister office (state Secretariat)

· Under/in the government officials/Offices of various Departments located at Village/Mandal/Talukas (Education Department [Elementary/Secondary public schools]/Public Health [PHCs/CHCS]/Mandal Revenue Office [MRO]/Station House Office [SHO’s] (Police Stations at villages/towns/cities)).

·       Any other organization approved by the Faculty Coordinator and HoD

Course Objectives: 

The course aims to help students to:

• apply theoretical knowledge to practical, real-life problems.
• analyse data/information through a scientific method.
• relate the acquired skills in practical application(s) and gain industry experience.

The students need to fulfil the following criteria for internship evaluation:

The students are expected to identify and communicate to the organisation/ institution they want to pursue their internship.  The same should be communicated to the Department of International Studies, Political Science and History, and approved before the commencement of the internship.  A letter of confirmation from the organisation must be submitted to the department before the internship commences.  The internship has to be undertaken by the student for four weeks (minimum 24 days).  A Daily work report followed by weekly reports must be maintained and submitted on time by the student to the respective faculty mentor.  The student must submit a final internship report and the Internship dairy copy to the department after completing the four-week internship and along with all the required documents.  A Certificate of Completion issued by the organisation must be submitted to the faculty and the department.  VIVA will be conducted to review the work done by the student to assess the learning outcomes.

This course has been designed to enable the students to acquire skills that would help them in the process of knowledge acquisition. Through this engagement, it will revisit and question different notions of knowledge and how it is constructed, created, disseminated, and acquired. The course would also enable the students to understand various research practices that are the focal point of the discipline. Also central to the course is an inquiry on the process and role of critical thinking in the discipline and in the larger context of society and nation.

Course Objectives

The course is designed to:

• enhance skills required for knowledge acquisition
• develop a comprehensive knowledge of the variety of research practices in the discipline
• hone and nurture their critical thinking abilities

This unit is primarily invested in the study of quantitative data. The unit will focus on the various ways in which data is elicited and analyzed. It will also give a brief idea about how quantitative data, which is highly monotonous in nature can be presented in an interesting way. Taking examples from the field of English, History, and Political Science, this unit will identify the sub-fields related to these disciplines which deal with large data sets.

Data Interpretation Module will cover Qualitative Research Methods in Language Studies. This module will give students the opportunity to explore the different types of qualitative research methodologies used within applied linguistics, linguistics and language and culture research. This will be focused on to an examination of what counts as evidence within a qualitative research framework and how qualitative research evidence can be evaluated. Students will examine a range of qualitative research methodologies, such as case study, ethnography, participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, discourse analysis. Students will apply this knowledge to a personal research interest.

The unit would primarily engage with the question of what it means to think and revisit some of the notions that are related to the act of thinking and the notion of intelligence. Focussing on the concept of multiple intelligence put forward by Gardener, the unit aims to provide a platform for the students to discuss and deliberate on intelligence and the possibility of exploring multiple intelligence.

Drawing from an informed understanding of the concept of multiple intelligence, this unit will explore the need to look at thinking as a multi-layered process. The aim here is to make students aware of the need to think differently than attempting to fit into what is normative.

Continuing with the questions of thinking and intelligence, this unit focuses on the process of learning and assessing what it means to be a learner in the contemporary era. This unit aims to impart the skills which will make learners value and practice dynamicity and acknowledge the need for appreciating multiple perspectives.

Social awareness provides an individual the ability to understand and respond to the needs of others. This course focuses on social awareness - the ability to understand and respond to the needs of others. This is the third of the domains of emotional intelligence proposed by Daniel Goleman. Research indicates that emotional intelligence can be learned and be measurable differences directly associated with professional and personal success. Furthermore, it may be responsible for up to 80% of the success we experience in life. The course focuses on the basic areas of emotional intelligence namely self-awareness, self-management; empathy/social awareness and relationship management. Students will be able to comprehend how self-awareness reflects understanding, personal acceptance & an overall understanding of personal psychology.

This module will help students learn and understand the fundamental motivations for reading. The module will introduce students to the various aspects of reading and writing and will help focus on the need to read with a sense of social awareness, responsibility and ethical action towards reading. This module aims to help students acquire the cognitive domain-related skills in helping them to appraise, develop, value, critique and defend their acts of reading. The module will include introduction to thinkers like Borges, Scholes, Booth, Fish and others who have written about reading and its responsibilities.

 The evaluation will be based on the assessments formulated by the PTC student-instructors who facilitate each unit in the class. A continuous evaluation pattern will be followed whereby after the completion of each unit, an assignment will follow. The assessment will be done based on predefined rubrics and the score sheet needs to be tabulated. The cumulative score sheet is to be prepared at the end of the semester and the final Skill Development Score is to be computed.

This course on basic statistics and data analytics begins with some basic concepts and terminology fundamental to statistical analysis and inference. Then a detailed description of descriptive statistics starting from measures of central tendency to skewness and kurtosis.  A separate module has been devoted to identifying the nature and the extent of the relationship between variables (correlation and regression analysis), followed by time-series statistics.  MS Excel will be used to give a practical-oriented approach.

 This course has been designed to help students to:

• demonstrate an understanding of the basic elements of data reading and visualisation. 
• apply summary statistics to describe the problem through data. 
• quantify the relationship between variables to test theory(ies).
• analyse the trend of a time series variable(s).

Meaning; Scope of statistics; Importance and limitation of statistics Collection of Data: Planning and organising a statistical enquiry; Methods of collecting primary data; Sources of secondary data; Sampling: Census method vs. sample method; Classification of data: Meaning, methods of classification; Tabulation of data: meaning, role, parts of a table; General rules of tabulation; Presentation of data; Diagrams and graphs: General rules for construction a diagram; Types of diagrams; Types of graphs; Software applications using MS-Excel.

Measures of Central Tendency: Mean, Median and Mode; Geometric and Harmonic means; Measures of Dispersion: Range, interquartile range and quartile deviation, mean deviation, standard deviation, Skewness and Kurtosis; Partition Values: Quartiles; deciles; percentiles; Software applications using MS-Excel.

Correlation Analysis: Meaning, types of correlation; Methods of studying correlation: Scatter diagram method, Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation, Spearman’s rank method, concurrent deviation method; Method of least squares: Introduction, estimation, the standard error of estimate, the coefficient of determination, properties of the OLS estimator. Software applications using MS-Excel.

Measurement of Secular trend: Free hand curve method or eye inspection method - Semi average method; Method of moving average; Method of least squares.  Measurement of seasonal variations: Method of simple averages; Ratio to trend method; Ratio to moving average method; Link relative method. Software applications using MS-Excel.

Field, A. (2009). Discovering Statistics using SPSS. London: Sage publications.

Gibbs, G. R. (2002). Qualitative Data Analysis: Explorations with NVivo. Buckingham: Open University Press Hall.

Levine, D. M. (2005). Statistics for Managers Using Microsoft Excel (5^th ed.). New York: Prentice

Lind, D. A., Waite, C. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S. A. (2005). Basic Statistics for Business & Economics. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Sharma, J. K. (2010). Fundamentals of Business Statistics. (2^nd ed.). New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.

Freund, J. E., & Perles, B. M. (2007). Modern Elementary Statistics. (12^th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Gupta, S. C., & Kapoor, V. K. (2007). Fundamentals of Applied Statistics. (4^th ed.).  New Delhi: Sultan Chand & Sons.

Larsen, R. J., & Marx, M. L. (2012). An Introduction to Mathematical Statistics and its Applications. (5^th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

Philosophers writing from the 17th century onwards were preoccupied with conflict and discontent in Europe. This led many to begin thinking and writing on forms of sovereignty other than that of absolute monarchy, the vestiges of Bodin’s reflections. We therefore have the emergence of the social contract tradition that challenged established ideas of monarchical rule. This also marked the beginning of liberal ideas and values in the study of the state and political authority.

Therefore, in Western Political Thought – II, students will be acquainted with the works and traditions of some dominant themes and ideas, i.e. political obligation, rights, utility, liberty, emancipation. As in Part I of the Course, the context and contemporary relevance of these traditions remain a crucial aspect of study.

Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau. State of Nature, Sovereignty, State and Civil Society. Political Obligation

Jeremy Bentham, J.S. Mill. Harriet Taylor Mill

Mary Wollstonecraft. Isaiah Berlin. John Rawls

Karl Marx. V.I. Lenin. Rosa Luxembourg. Antonio Gramsci. Louis Althusser

§  Gottlieb, Roger, S. (ed) (1989). An Anthology of Western Marxism, From Lukács to Gramsci to Socialist-Feminism. Oxford University Press.

§  Hudis, Peter and Paul Le Blanc (ed) (2013). The Complete Works of Rosa Luxembourg, Vol. II. Verso.

§  Jacobs, Jo Ellen. (1998). The Complete Works of Harriet Taylor Mill. Indiana University Press.

§  Jha, Shefali. (2018) Western Political Thought: From the Ancient Greeks to Modern Times. New Delhi: Pearson.

§  McClelland, J.S. (1998). A History of Western Political Thought. Routledge.

§  Mill, J.S. Mill. (1859). On Liberty.

§  Mukhopadhyay, A.K. (1980). Western Political Thought: From Ancient Greeks to Modern Political Scientists. Sage.

§  Nelson, B. (2008) Western Political Thought. New Delhi: Pearson Longman.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Popper, Karl. (1945). The Open Society and its Enemies.

Popper, Karl. . (1957). The Poverty of Historicism

This course offers selected classical and modern concepts and theories of Public Administration. It introduces the evolution of public administration as a discipline and the significance of the dichotomy between political science and public administration. Specifically, it provides basic concepts and principles like organisation, hierarchy, unity of command, span of control, authority and responsibility etc. Besides, students learn core theories of public administration and new frontiers in the field of public administration.

Course Objectives:

The course aims to help students to:

• understand the nature and importance of personnel administration and its evolution as an important field. 
• critically reflect on principles financial administration and its general applicability in governmental context.
• analyse new developments in the field of law-and-order administration.
• Relate Citizen and administration interface through various regulatory agencies.

Meaning and Significance. Types of Bureaucracy – Aristocratic (Guardian and Class), Spoils, Democratic (w.s.r.t. Weberian Bureaucracy).                                                     

Recruitment (w.s.r.t. India). Training. Position Classification, Promotion and Compensation. Discipline, Rights and Duties.                                                     

Law enforcement Bodies: Historical evolution, Indian Police System, National Police Commission, Investigative agencies: CBI, Directorate of Revenue, Enforcement Directorate, National Investigation Agency, Narcotic Control Bureau, and Parliamentary forces.

Budget: Meaning, Significance, Principles; Budgetary Process: Formulation, Enactment and Execution; Types of Budgets: Line-Item vs Performance Budget; Incremental vs Zero-Based Budget; Sunset Legislation

Accountability and Control over Civil Service Personnel: Meaning and Significance. Administrative Ethics, Integrity, Code of Conduct and Civil Service Rules, Legislative, Executive, Judicial, and Popular control over Civil Services. Ombudsman in India: CVC, Lok Pal and Lok Ayuktha.

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

This course examines public policymaking, implementation, and analysis with special reference to India. Moreover, it provides policy actors, structures, institutions and in the policymaking process, Approaches, and models of public policy. Students learn how diverse types of public policies are formulated, implemented, monitored, and evaluated. The course also provides the role of executives and challenges they experience during the policy implementation.

Course Objectives

The course aims to help students to:

• explain basic understanding on public policy related concepts in the context of political science and public and public administration. 
• develop the knowledge on various theoretical approaches to public policy analysis; and the policy-making cycle as a model to analyzing the public policy process.
• orient towards patterns of policy changes over time. Finally, the course aims to develop the students to creatively explore a policy issue of their choice near the end of the term and write a policy on a topic of their choice.

• CO1: identify and explain the major theoretical approaches to policy studies.
• CO2: understand the importance of the policy context and be able to analyze how various ideas, ideologies, discourses, actors, institutions, and structures influence the policymaking process.
• CO3: explain the stages of the policy cycle and understand how they are interrelated.
• CO4: map out policy implications, challenges in the process of policy implementation and evaluation.

Public Policy: Evolution, Meaning, Nature, Scope and Importance; Public Policy, Public Administration and Governance.

Political System theory, Group theory, Rational Choice theory and Elite Theory.

The role of official stakeholders: Legislature, Civil servants, Judiciary & Policy Research Institutions. Non- Official Policy Stakeholders: Public Opinion, pressure groups and Media.

Definition and Objectives of Implementation. Approaches and Models: Top-Down Rational system approach, Bottom-Up Approach, A synthesis of Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches. Implementation Organs: Political executive and Bureaucracy.

Policy Evaluation: Role, Process and Criteria, Evaluating Agencies – Problems in Policy Evaluation: Crisis of governance. Policy Monitoring: Approaches and Techniques, Constraints in Policy Monitoring, Measures for Effective Policy Monitoring.

Social media has changed politics and political communication. It is an integral part of the tool-kit of political entities to reach the public. It is being used to influence and to demonstrate resistance. This course will explore the technological, economical and socio-political aspects of the rise in prominence of social media as a means of political communication. It will involve case studies to understand the way political entities have used social media to their benefit (as well to their peril). The students will also assess the extent to which it has affected political participation through empowerment and dis-empowerement as well as the possibilities that it holds in improving political participation and furthering the ideals of a vibrant democracy.

• A brief history of social media

• Technology, politics and economics of social media

• Disrupting the gatekeeping of traditional media

• Algorithms, networks and the dissemination of information

• Global and Local communication flows

• Virality, Filter bubbles, echo-chambers, and misinformation

• Polycentric communication vs. mass communication

• Data-based politics, Elections and polarisation

• Microtargeting on social media

• Case Study: Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and the Trump Campaign

• Twitter: a platform in flux

• Facebook: debates on its influence on democracy and popularity among audiences of various age groups

• YouTube: monopoly on internet video?

• Instagram and TikTok: Activism and populism and micro-videos

• Reddit and its political communities

• Political communication on platforms of the future powered by Web 3.0, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality

• Identifying audience segments and demographic groups on social media

• Political elites and non-elites of the internet

• Managing a successful online political campaign

• Governance through social media

• Controlling social media - Protests, Freedom of expression, net neutrality, censorship, data protection

• Memes - Possibilities, and copyrights

This course has been designed to promote professional skills in the students. The theme identified for the third and fourth semesters is Critical thinking and professional Development. The topics identified under the theme will enable the students to understand the challenges faced during their career and allow them to face them with necessary skills. 

The course aims to: 

• develop discipline specific skills for professional and personal growth.
• provide a platform to nurture and hone skills necessary for professional development. 

Students must choose MOOC courses offered by various online platforms in the specific theme given for the third and fourth semesters. This consists of review of literature, reference management system, workspace etiquettes, critical analysis writing, SOP, article analysis, writing argumentative essays, resume writing, cover letters and job finding through an online portal.

Evaluation pattern