12/12/2014

Political Science Morning Test Answers

Ch. 6 : Political Parties 

Name: ___________________                                                                        Std: X Div: ___  Roll No: _____

Q1. What is the guiding philosophy of the Bhartiya Janata Party? (1 mark)

Ans: Integral humanism

Q2(CBSE 2011): Which one of the following is a better way of carrying out political reforms in a democratic country?  (1 mark)
(a) The legal changes
(b) The constitutional changes
(c) The empowerment of people
(d) The legislation for reforms

Q3(NCERT): Who is the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party? (1 mark)
Ans:Kanshi Ram


Q4: The rise of political parties can be linked directly to the emergence of  (1 mark)
(a) Representative Democracy
(b) Constitutional Monarchy
(c) Direct Democracies
(d) Polyarchy

Q5(CBSE 2011): The USA and UK are examples of which kind of party system?  (1 mark)
Ans: Two-party system
Q6(CBSE 2011): Define Partisan means.  (1 mark)

Ans: A person who is strongly committed to a party.

Q7. The concept of Hindutwa was adopted by which party?  (1 mark)
Ans: Bharathiya Janata Party

Q8. The Bahujan Samaj Party stands for which cause ? (1 mark)
Ans:  securing the interest of the oppressed people.

Q9. Name 3 political parties that grew out of a movement? (2 mark)
Ans: Asom Gana Parishad.

        AIDMK

        AAP

Q10. State various functions of Political Parties in a democracy. (5 mark)

Ans: The political parties fill political offices and exercise political powers by performing following series of functions:

1.    Parties contest elections: Most of the countries have different types of political establishments.

2.   Parties provide training ground for politicians, equip them with skills, knowledge and experience.

3.   The parties give public platform to their politicians emerge as leaders.

4.   In general top leaders of the parties choose candidates to contest elections.

5. Political parties put forward different policies and programmes in front of voters to choose from. 

6.   It provides a link between the citizens and the government.

7. It presents different choices and alternative goals to voters.

8. Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country.

9.   Formally laws are debated and passed in the legislature but most of the members belong to a party.

10.                Political parties form political opinion about the laws to be made.

11.          Parties form and run the government.

12.                Policy decisions whether big or small by the executive on the basis of opinion made by the parties represented by the executive.

13.                Parties forming the government recruit leaders, train them and assign them as ministers to run government as per their political objectives.

14.                Political parties form the opposition, which checks the wrong polices of the government. 

15.                Parties though elected but are in opposition raise their voices and present views against government wrong policies and decisions.

16.                They mobilize people and form public opinion against the government policies.

17.          Political parties help to express and shape public opinion. 

18.                Parties mobilize public opinion. educate the people about the problems of the country. Sometimes they commence movements to resolve problems faced by the people.

19.          Political parties provide access to government machinery and implement welfare schemes resolve common people issues.

20.               Parties fulfill their political promises that they made before elections otherwise people would reject them in next election.

Q 11. What are the challenges faced by political parties? (5 mark)

Ans: Challenges faced by political parties are:

1.      Lack of Internal democracy: The decision making authority is concentrated to few top leaders of the political party. The parties do not conduct elections for top level positions. The parties lack internal democracy due to which many prospective leaders are deprived of their rights. 

2.      Dynasty Succession: In many parties, the top position or leadership are managed by members of a family. To contest general elections, tickets are given to the relatives and family members. There have been dynastic successions in the political parties. This keeps the parties deprived of apt leadership.

3.      Muscle power and Criminalization: The parties sometimes, indulge in the use of money and muscle power to win elections at any cost. Tickets are given to history sheeters. No doubt it is against the spirit of democracy.

4.      Lack of Ideological Differences and Political Values: There are not much ideological differences among the various parties. So, there is a lack of meaningful choices before the voters. Many a times the political leaders keep on shifting from one party to another.

5.      Lack of Political Socialization: There is lack of learning process among the political parties due to which polarization of social and political issues occur. For example many regional parties confine to local issues for their vested interests. It hampers the smooth functioning of political system.