Electoral Politics..........Part IV

Q8.What is "Nomination of candidate"? What are the directions introduced by  the Supreme Court for the candidates while filling the nomination form.

1. Political parties nominate their candidates who get the party symbol and support. 
2. Party’s nomination is called party ‘ticket’. 
3. Every person who wishes to contest an election has to fill a ‘nomination form’ and give some money as ‘security deposit.

As per the directions introduced by the Supreme Court every candidate has to make a legal declaration, giving full details of :

Electoral Politics..........Part III

Q6.What is meant by reserved constituency? Why the Constitution makers, feel the need of it in India? 

1. Some constituencies are reserved for people who belong to the Scheduled Castes [SC] and Scheduled Tribes [ST]. 
2. In a SC and ST reserved constituency only someone who belongs to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes can contest elections. 
3. In the Lok Sabha, 84 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 47 for the Scheduled Tribes.
4. This number is in proportion to their share in the total population.
5. Thus the reserved seats for SC and ST do not take away the legitimate share of any other social group.
6. This system of reservation was extended to other weaker sections at the district and local level. 
7. In many states, seats in rural (panchayat) and urban (municipalities and corporations) local bodies are now reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) as well.
8. The proportion of seats reserved varies from state to state. 
9. Similarly, one-third of the seats are reserved in rural and urban local bodies for women candidates. 

Electoral Politics..........Part II

Q4. What is general election and by election?

1. After five years the term of all the elected representatives comes to an end. 
2. The Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha stands‘dissolved’. 
3. Elections are held in all constituencies at the same time, either on the same day or within a few days. 
4. This is called a general election. 
5. Sometimes election is held only for one constituency to fill the vacancy caused by death or resignation of a member.
6. This is called a by-election.

DEMOCRATIC POLITICS GRADE IX Electoral Politics..........Part I

SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS  ON WHICH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE GIVEN:

WHY ELECTIONS?
Why do we need elections?
What makes an election democratic?
Is it good to have political competition?

WHAT IS OUR SYSTEM OF ELECTIONS?
Electoral constituencies 
Reserved Constituencies
Voter's list
Nomination of candidates
Election Campaign
Polling and counting of votes

BEST WISHES TO GRADE XII AND X

Dear students I extend my best wishes to all the students of grade XII and X  for Board Exams . May god bless you all.

MONEY AND CREDIT..................Part I

SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS  ON WHICH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE GIVEN: 

MONEY AS A MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE
MODERN FORMS OF MONEY
LOAN ACTIVITIES OF BANKS
TWO DIFFERENT CREDIT SITUATIONS
TERMS OF CREDIT
FORMAL SECTOR CREDIT IN INDIA
SELF-HELP GROUPS FOR THE POOR

GLOBALISATION AND THE INDIAN ECONOMY................Part III

Q11.What are the functions of WTO?

1. World Trade Organisation's aim is to liberalise international trade .
2. WTO was started at the initiative of the developed countries. 
3. WTO establishes rules regarding international trade,and sees that these rules are obeyed.
4. 149 countries of the world are currently members of the WTO
   (2006).
5. WTO promotes free trade by abolishing trade barriers.
6. It seeks to resolve the trade disputes.
7. It enhances trade competition between the countries.

GLOBALISATION AND THE INDIAN ECONOMY................Part II

Q7. What is Globalisation?

1. Globalisation is the process of rapid integration or interconnection between countries.
2. More and more goods and services, investments and technology are moving between countries. 
3. Most regions of the world are in closer contact with each other than a few decades back.
4. Besides the movements of goods, services, investments and technology, the countries are also  connected through the movement of people between countries. 
5. Peopl move from one country to another in search of better income, better jobs or better education.
6. The Globalisation is the result of greater foreign investment and greater foreign trade
7. It has resulted in the  greater integration of production and markets across countries.

GLOBALISATION AND THE INDIAN ECONOMY................Part I

SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS  ON WHICH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE GIVEN:

PRODUCTION ACROSS COUNTRIES
INTERLINKING PRODUCTION ACROSS COUNTRIES
FOREIGN TRADE AND INTEGRATION OF MARKETS
WHAT IS GLOBALISATION?
FACTORS THAT HAVE ENABLED GLOBALISATION
WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION
IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION IN INDIA
THE STRUGGLE FOR A FAIR GLOBALISATION 

Popular Struggles and Movements.................Part III

Q9."In a democracy several different kinds of organisations work behind any big struggle and influence the decision." Explain.

1. In a democracy several different kinds of organisations work behind any big struggle.These organisations play their role in two ways.  
2. By influencing the decisions in a democracy through direct participation in competitive politics. This is done by creating parties, contesting elections and forming governments. 
3. But every citizen does not participate directly as they may not have the desire, the need or the skills to take part in direct political activity other than voting.
4. Therefore people can also participate indirectly and make  governments to listen to their demands or their point of view by forming an organisation or by undertaking activities to promote their interest or their viewpoint. 
5. These are called interest groups or pressure groups.
6. Sometimes people can also decide to act together without forming organisations.

Popular Struggles and Movements.................Part II

Q5. What does the term BAMCEF signify? Mention its two objectives.

1. The term BAMCEF  signifies Backward and Minorities Community Employees Federation 
2. It is an organisation  made up of government employees that campaigns against caste discrimination. 
3. It addresses the problems of its members who suffer discrimination.   
4. Its principal concern is with social justice and social equality for the entire society.

Popular Struggles and Movements.................Part I

SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS  ON WHICH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE GIVEN:
 
Popular struggles in Nepal and Bolivia
Mobilisation and organisations
Pressure groups and movements

I. Answer the following questions : 

Political Parties.............Part III

Q11. What are the steps taken by the government to reform political parties?

1. The Constitution has been amended to prevent elected MLAs and MPs from changing parties. 
2. This was done because many elected representatives were indulging in DEFECTION in order to become ministers or for cash rewards.
3. Now the law says that if any MLA or MP changes parties, he or she will lose the seat in the legislature. This new law has helped bring defection down. 
4. The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals and  it is mandatory for every candidate who contests elections to file an AFFIDAVIT giving details of his property and criminal cases pending against him.
5. The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to hold their organisational elections and file their income tax returns.
6. A law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of political parties. It should be made compulsory for political parties to maintain a register of its members, to follow its own constitution,
   to have an independent authority, to act as a judge in case of party disputes, to hold open elections to the highest posts.
7. It should be made mandatory for political parties to give a minimum number of tickets, about one-third, to women candidates.
8. There should be a quota for women in the decision making bodies of the party. 
9. There should be state funding of elections. 
10. The government should give parties money to support their election expenses. 
11. The support could be given in kind: petrol, paper, telephone etc. Or it could be given in cash on the basis of the votes secured by the party in the last election.

Political Parties.............Part II

Q5. What is a National Party?

1. A party that secures at least six per cent of total votes in Lok Sabha elections or Assembly elections in four States and wins at least four seats in the Lok Sabha is recognised as a national party.

Q6. What is State Party?

1. A party that secures at least 6 per cent of the total votes in an election to the Legislative Assembly of a State and wins at least two seats is recognised as a State party.

Political Parties.............Part I

SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS  ON WHICH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE GIVEN: 

Why do we need political parties?

How many parties should we have?

National political parties

State parties

Challenges to political parties

How can parties be reformed?

Outcomes of Democracy........Part II

Q5.How does democracy produce an accountable, responsive and legitimate government?
Democracy produces an accountable, responsive and legitimate government by: 
Accountable government

1. Ensuring that people  have the right to choose their rulers and people have control over the rulers.
2. Citizens should be able to participate in decision making that affects them all.
3. Citizens also have an effective right to evaluate the decision making process.

Outcomes of Democracy..............Part I

Q1.Why is democracy  considered  a better form of government than other forms? 
Democracy is considered a better form of government than other forms because: 

1. Promotes equality among citizens.
2. Enhances the dignity of the individual.
3. Improves the quality of decision making.
4. Provides a method to resolve conflicts.
5. Allows room to correct mistakes.

Challenges to Democracy.................Part II

Q3."Legal-constitutional changes by themselves cannot overcome challenges to democracy". Explain with example.

1. Democratic reforms are to be carried out mainly by political activists, parties, movements and politically conscious citizens.
2. Any legal change must produce positive effect on politics as sometimes the results may be counter-productive. For example, many states have banned people who have more than two children from contesting panchayat elections. 
3. This has resulted in denial of democratic opportunity to many poor and women, which was not intended. 
4. Generally, laws that seek to ban something are not very successful in politics. 
5. Laws that give political actors incentives to do good things have more chances of working.
6. The best laws are which empower people to carry out democratic reforms for example:
7. The Right to Information Act is  a law that empowers the people to find out what is happening in government and act as watchdogs of democracy.
8. Such a law helps to control corruption and supplements the existing laws that banned corruption and imposed strict penalties.

Challenges to Democracy.................Part I

Q1. Describe the broad challenges to democracy.

A challenge is a difficulty that carries within it an opportunity for progress. Once we overcome a challenge we go up to a higher level than before.Different countries face different kinds of challenges such as:
Foundational challenge:

1. In Non democratic countries making the transition to democracy and then instituting democratic government.  
2. This involves bringing down the existing non-democratic regime, keeping military away from controlling government and establishing a sovereign and functional state.

Nationalism in India .................Part III

Q17. Explain the reasons for relaunching the Civil disobedience Movement by Gandhiji.

Civil disobedience Movement was relaunched  by Gandhiji because:

1. Failure of talks at 2nd  Round Table conference and Gandhiji was disappointed.
2. Country was going through unrest. There were strikes by railway workers in 1930 and dock workers in 1932.
3. Peasants were facing high taxation and poverty.
4. The government had begun a new cycle of repression. Ghaffar Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru were both in jail, the Congress had been declared illegal, and a series of measures had been imposed to preventmeetings, demonstrations and boycotts.