Trends in Politics

Contents: Preface. 1. Political system and functions. 2. Nationalism and internationalism. 3. Growth of regionalism. 4. Caste and community trends. 5. Caste in state politics. 6. Communalism in Indian politics. 7. Caste system in modern perspectives. 8. Class consciousness and structure. 9. Regionalism and demand for separate statehood. 10. Political parties and programmes. 11. Religious and cultural organisations. 12. Pressure groups and government. 13. Government and party system. Index.

"The rejection of the traditional view of politics as party politics, nevertheless does not mean the rejection of the view that party politics is a major aspect of politics. It is through political parties that the struggle for power takes place. Political parties, though extra constitutional in nature, always play a leading part in every political system, and more particularly in every democratic political system. These are the instruments which perform the function of interest aggregation and transform the demands into policy alternatives. They play a key role in the political functions of adaptation and integration. These are the vital channels of political communications which transmit two way information from people to the government and vice-versa. Without political parties, elections cannot be held, government-making cannot be effectively pursued, law-making can be jeoparadised, political communication process can suffer a big decline and government can behave arbitrarily, public opinion can remain ambiguous and confused peoples support to the government can decrease and opposition to government can become anomic and harmful, and the functioning of the political system can become difficult, inefficient and unstable." (jacket)