Political Systems — Democracy, federalism, secularism, socialism and capitalism, authoritarianism vs totalitarianism. The foundational structures of the modern state and India's specific variant.
Democracy: Direct vs representative, parliamentary vs presidential
Plato and Aristotle: Ideal state, citizenship, virtue — the founders of Western political philosophy and their enduring questions about justice and the good life
Machiavelli: Realism in politics, power — the first modern political thinker who separated ethics from statecraft and taught rulers how to survive in a dangerous world
Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau: Social contract theory — the foundational debate about the origins of political authority and the rights of individuals against the state
John Stuart Mill: Liberty, utilitarianism, representative government — the philosopher who set the boundaries of individual freedom and the case for democratic participation
Gandhi: Non-violence, swaraj, trusteeship — the moral revolutionary who transformed politics through truth-force and mass civil disobedience
Ambedkar: Social justice, annihilation of caste, constitutional morality — the architect of India's Constitution and the voice of the marginalized