Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 7 Political Participation
- Political participation has an important place among the concepts of modern politics or modern political concepts.
- Switzerland is a leading country to exhibit political participation and direct democracy.
- Political participation is an important parameter to analyse and evaluate any political system.
- Political participation has importance in almost all kinds of political systems whether these are traditional, modem, democratic or dictatorship types.
- Political participation is the life-line of democratic political system.
Meaning of Political Participation:
- Political participation means the complete participation of citizens of the country in all the different levels of political systems.
- The political participation in the form of a concept is seen first in the essays of Rousseau and other democratic writers.
- hey began the concept of political participation in Political Science.
Form of Political Participation:
- There are two forms of political participation :
- Developmental
- Democratic
- To vote or to motivate others for voting, to give donations, to submit petitions against the ruling representatives, managing rallies, to protest or sit on dharna to pressurize the ruling representatives are some important tools of political participation.
- There has been a rapid increase in the political participation along with the increase in government activities and responsibilities.
- Political participation has a close relation with almost every social aspect of developed society.
- Pericles considers the participation of citizens in democratic decision, as a compulsory condition of democracy.
Citizens’ Consciousness and Participation:
- Citizens’ consciousness, their educational level and their ideological base are the major factors that ensure their participation in political matters.
- In countries having a higher literacy percentage, there is greater participation of citizens in politics.
Elite Form of Political Participation:
- In democratic process, the effective and active participation of citizens in political matters is the first and foremost condition.
- According to famous political scholar Joseph Schumpeter, to administer the government and to form public policies are the tasks of professionals and to form public policies are the tasks of professional politicians.
- At present, the actual political participation is restricted in the hands of very few people which we call elite section of society.
- In Modern democratic system, the democracy is in fact the government of professional politicians and the role of common people is very little, for a little time and only imaginary.
Methods of Political Participation:
- There are two methods of political participation.
- Community Activity
- Active interaction between citizens and government.
Various Forms of Political Participation:
- There are two major forms of political participation :
- Traditional Political Participation.
- Non-traditional Political Participation.
- Each of the above two (traditional and non-traditional) participation has two sub-forms :
- Citizen Participation
- State Participation
Major Agencies of Political Participation:
- Following are the major agencies of political participation :
- Pressure groups
- Proposal Preparation
- To call back representative
- Public hearing
- Advisory council
- Civil disobedience
- Political reprisal
- Vote for the decision on any question.
Utility of Political Participation:
- Political participation is an important part of a good life and it is an important sign of a good society.
- In modern age of democracy, the participation of citizens in the decisions related to public issues has become neccesary.
Views in Favour of Political Participation:
- Political participation protects the interests and rights of participants itself.
- It show the unity of citizens regarding common interests.
- The participation of public in political matters is appropriate up to a limit only, otherwise it becomes harmful.
- Only a sensible use of political participation can give meaningful results.
RBSE Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 7 Important Terms
- Political Participation : It is a political concept that advocates and ensures the participation of citizens of a country in political matters to form and implement policies of public welfare.
- Direct Democracy : It is that form of democracy in which the public directly participates in the conduct of governance. Switzerland is an example of direct democracy.
- Behaviourism : It is a kind of intellectual tendency, a study method, a movement or an ideology which wants to purify political science through factual study of human behaviour.
- Self-Rule : When a country has right to handle all its responsibilities and tasks according to its own choice then that country is said to have self rule.
- Monarchy : The rule of a king or queen.
- Republic : Direct or indirect rule of public.
- Representative Democracy (Indirect Democracy) : It is a form of democracy in which public elects its representatives and these representatives conduct the government. It is also called Indirect Democracy.
- Authority or Power : It is the constitutional power applicable over a person or society.
- Bureaucrat : It is an official body working as an advisor under a government.
- Technocrat : It is a technical expert.
- Elite Section : It is a social group having very few people which has power, money and intelligence and has great influence in politics and government.
- Pressure Group : It is a group of people formed for a common goal and to put pressure over government to achieve its target.
- Call back of Representatives : It is a special provision in democratic system to call back or remove the public representative from his/her position if he/she is not true to his/her responsibilities.
- Vote for the Decision on Any Action : The adoption of any action is carried with majority opinion.
- Civil disobedience : It is a kind of protest in which an unjust law is openly broken.
- Panchayati Raj : Village-level local self rule is called Panchayati Raj. India has three tiered Panchayati Raj System. These are Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad at village, block and district level respectively. This system has been implemented through 73rd constitutional amendment.
- Public Hearing : It is the process through which political representatives and officers try to know the problems, opinions of public related to different subjects.
- Advisory Council: At present, the government has constituted some committees of reputed and well-aware citizens. These committees are related to different departments and give suggestions on different issues.
- Political Reprisal : It is an offensive form of protest. It includes bomb-blasts, violence, killings, damaging public properties and some other such activities. These actions show that the protesting group is not satisfied with the workings or policies of the government.
- Personal Bill : When some member other than the minister of concerned department presents a bill in the legislative, then it is called personal bill. In democracy, the public can put a bill in the. legislature through its representative.
- Public Opinion Poll: This is the process in which public voting is made regarding a specific policy or a government decision. The public gives its views on the asked question through opinion poll.
- Social Media : It is web-based (internet), very fast medium of communication in which the people exchange their ideas and knowledge, talk on various topics. It is popular in the form of Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Whatsapp, etc.
- Rousseau : A French political scholar, supporter of direct democracy, writer of the famous book “The Social Contract” and founder of the ‘Social Contract Theory’.
- Magloski : A political thinker. He defined the political participation.
- Pericles : An important political scientist who considered political participation as an integral part of democracy.
- Kash and Marsh : These were political scholars who placed the concept of political participation in the centre of concept of democratic state.
- Benjamin Barber : He was a famous political scholar and supporter of participant democracy. He stressed the need of a strong democracy.
- Joseph Schumpeter : He was a famous political thinker. He said that the functions like making policies and running government are of professional politicians and not of common people or normal citizens.
- Robert Dahl: He was a professor in Yale university. He criticized the elite form of democracy. He said that democratic values cease when it becomes a toy in the hands of the elite section.