Maharashtra Board Class 12 Political Science Solution Chapter 1 – The World since 1991
Balbharati Maharashtra Board Class 12 Political Science Solution Chapter 1: The World since 1991. Marathi or English Medium Students of Class 12 get here The World since 1991 full Exercise Solution.
Std |
Maharashtra Class 12 |
Subject |
Political Science |
Chapter |
1 |
Chapter Name |
The World since 1991 |
Q.1 A: Choose the correct alternative and complete the following statements.
1.) The main aim of SAARC was to establish a dialogue in South Asia.
2.) Catalonia wants independence from Spain.
(B) State the appropriate concept for the given statement.
1.) When a state influences other states without the use of military force: Soft Power
Very much popular in international politics nowadays, soft power is something that avoids hard aggression, but relies more on cooperation, persuasion or diplomacy to get what the leaders want.
2.) A state with a leading position in international politics with abilities to influence global politics and fulfill its own interest: Superpower
Countries with clearly so much power in international politics, tend to dominate the entire political scenario of their own will. The term was coined after the First World War, where the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the US were leading powers, and with Great Britain leaving the scene, only Soviet and the US were left. Today, we have the US, Russia, China, Japan but right now, not India, as superpowers.
Q.2 (A) Complete the concept maps.
1.) BIMSTEC Countries: a. Bangladesh b. Bhutan c. India d. Nepal e. Sri Lanka f. Myanmar g. Thailand
The first five countries are South Asian countries and the next two are Southeast Asian countries. BIMSTEC, founded in 1997, is a multilateral organization, and works in a different manner as compared to the other organizations that we have learned in the chapter. It is more of a sector driven, where different areas are divided as responsibilities to different countries. Our India is responsible for taking care of the transportation, handling terrorism and tourism. The latest summit was held in 2022, via a virtual meeting.
2.) SHANGHAI Cooperation Organization Founder Countries: a. China b. Russia c. Kazakhstan d. Kyrgyzstan e.Tajikistan f.Uzbekistan
Founded by the founder countries in 2001, the SCO stands for the development of all the sectors of the countries mentioned above, as well as India and Pakistan, who are its most recent members from 2016. They focus on the development of science and technology, research and culture, education, trade and right now, their most important target is ending terrorism.
(B) Observe the maps in textbook and answer the following questions
1.) Name any four countries in the Schengen area.
Ans: Four countries in the Schengen area are:
a.) Germany b. Sweden c. France d. Denmark
2.) Name any two non-European Union countries within the Schengen area.
Ans: Two non European Union countries within the Schengen area are:
a.) Bulgaria b.) Romania
Q.3) State whether the following statements are true or false with reason:
a.) SAARC is important for trade in South Asia.
Ans: True, the organization is extremely important for smooth trade functioning in South Asia, since its motivated creation is to economically develop the region, and smoothen trading in these member countries. To make trade more smooth, they found the free trade arrangement, with zero duty access by India to the least developed countries, under the name, SAFTA, that is, South Asian Free Trade Agreement.
b.) ‘Maastricht’ Treaty was signed for the defense of Europe.
Ans: False. It was more of an European trade safeguarding kind of treaty which just meant to create a single identity of the Europeans, which would then allow room for creation of single citizenship and much better idea of moving freely within the member states of EU.
c.) The decade of 1980s is seen as the golden age of humanitarian intervention
Ans: False. This is because it was not the 1980s but the 1990s that saw the rise of human intervention with the formation of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights after the World Conference was held in Vienna in 1993. It was this awareness for human rights that led to the term “human intervention”.
Q4: Express your opinions:
1.) Express your opinion about humanitarian intervention.
Ans: If there is anything that has happened the best to humankind after the wars, it has been the “humanitarian intervention” which led to the rise of the awareness about the human rights of highly affected people, a direct voice which stood for the rights of the people, and against the discrimination that many faced. Not only war, but the UN decided and understood the need to stand for people who could not stand for themselves, and thus, in the 1990s, a strong voice stood up for human rights, and this rising awareness for humans and their rights, has been termed “humanitarian intervention”. In my opinion, the UN did the best to come up with the global human rights for every one’s basic needs to survive and sustain on this planet with dignity. It was really important to look over the problems of wars and the idea of power, and focus on the common cause of humanity, which had been affected by colonization, World Wars and the greed for power.
In my opinion, with humanitarian intervention, the international community came up with the obligation to serve the world in a more humanitarian manner, working and protecting everyone’s basic human rights, and help in making this world a better place, something that had been destroyed by the World Wars, discriminatory practices and prejudices. There is even a thought about creating a UN army to work against all odds of genocides and human rights violation.
2.) Is Regionalism important in international politics?
Ans: Yes, in my opinion, regionalism is an important aspect of international politics. This can be best understood by the fact that many organizations, like the SAARC, NATO, EU, ASEAN, etc are based on their regional locations, but their targets that they tend to achieve while keeping their regionalism varies from one regional organization to other. Regionalism does not only talk about regions with geographic linkages but is also based on functional and infrastructural issues, and according to me, it is important for different nations from the same region to come together and work for the larger development of the region, which would be more profitable and would have better outcomes.
This is because you cannot expect one particular organization like the UN to work towards the development of the world in one go. Every specific geographical area and countries have their own issues to be sorted, and for that, different countries from the same area need to come together for a political dialogue, sort out what they need to work on first, and then make an organization and work together to achieve their targets. For example, the European Union was created for stabilizing Europe, which had come under a lot of havoc after the Second World War, and then it started working towards its economic stability, and gave rise to the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 and European Economic Community in 1957, giving green flags for fostering economic growth in the countries via interdependent trading.
Q5: Answer the following:
Explain the term soft power with examples:
Ans: Soft power is something that America exercises and most of us are in its grasp and we don’t even realize it. Basically, in simple terms according to our textbook, soft power is when a country influences others without using military force, that is, no force or harm is used and yet the country manages to dominate its own idea and interests on the others. Soft power is an American thing, and this country with superpower uses soft power to bring forth its interests of capitalization, consumerism and spread of its white supremist culture by making us think if our cultures and way of leading communities and markets is less than theirs. We are under America’s idea of domination through soft power by living a life like they want us to. Many cultures and countries are under the influence of American dominance by following their culture, their ideologies, their system of education, their dressing sense and even their web series. We consume what they serve us, and their influence is spread through economic, social and cultural means.
Soft power can be explained through America’s student exchange programs, where number of students from different countries leave their own education system and opt for higher studies in the US, the use of American brands and spreading that “cool” is when you’re someone with a western ideology and western looks and eat western foods is the way America uses its soft power. With the advent of the Internet, social media sites have played a major role in bringing forth the idea of being more western. The good thing about America’s soft power is that the youth understands that it has its own freedom of speech and stands against the government policies which do not suit democracy and liberalism. The American soft power is practiced through high end promotion of its brands like McDonalds, Subway, etc.
Q6: Answer the following question in detail with help of given points.
Discuss the European Union with help of given points. (a) History (b) European Commission
(c) European Parliament (d) European Council (e) European Court of Justice
Ans: a. History: The history of the European Union starts with the post Second World War era, where the European countries and its economies were in complete chaos, were unstable and something was desperately needed to cope up with the loss and chaos, and with that, the idea of all European countries coming together surfaced, with Winston Churchill admitting that it was an absolute necessity that United States of Europe is formed in 1946, and with this, came up the organization of the European Union, which united all the countries of Europe. Not only unity, but to stabilize the economy of Europe, and to make countries free of conflict, came up the solution of making European countries interdependent of each other in terms of trade, and so, in the year 1951, with the Treaty of Paris, was established the European Coal and Steel Community. It was an organization with six founding countries namely, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, who agreed to give away their sovereignty and bring coal and steel under a common market for Europe. In 1957, under the terms of Treaty of Rome, the European Economic Community was brought into being for initiating a common market and customs union in Europe. The official EU came in with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, when all these organizations merged into one, formed the European Parliament, and a single market for all Europe.
b.) European Commission: The European Commission works as the executive branch of the European Union which is responsible for managing the European Union’s day to day business activities, bringing in proposals, legistalations, managing and looking after the terms and treaties and above all, implementing the taken decisions. The Commission is formed of 28 members, with one member per state.
c.) European Parliament: The European Parliament is the legislative branch, which is also entrusted with the budgets and supervision and is the Parliamentary institution of the European Union in which the members are directly elected by the citizens of the European Union who are 18 years or older, and is composed of 751 members.
d.) European Council: The European Council is basically a representation of the executive governments of the EU member states, with the head of the states and their foriegn ministers participating in the EU meetings four times a year. The goal of the meetings is to discuss and formulate policies and amend laws for the EU.
e.) European Court of Justice: Laws that are amended and executed are to be protected and followed by all, and any infrigement or violations of the law is judged and the matter is taken by the European Court of Justice. The ECJ is responsible to settle disputes, if any, between the national governments and the EU, or any individual or EU if any of the parties find that the laws and their rights have been offended and violated.