Civics is the study of rights and duties of citizenship.

In other words, it is the study of government with attention to the role of citizens as opposed to external factors in the operation and oversight of government. Within a given political or ethical tradition, civics refers to educating the citizens. The history of civics dates back to the earliest theories of civics by Confucius in ancient China and Platoin ancient Greece. These traditions in general have led to modern distinctions between the West and the East, and two very different concepts[which?] of right and justice and ethics in public life.
Contents
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1 Forms of civic thought

1.1 Examples of different types

2 Criticism of civic education 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit]Forms

of civic thought

Of special concern are the choice of a form of government and (if this is any form of democracy) the design of an electoral system and ongoing electoral reform. This involves explicitly comparing voting systems, wealth distribution and the decentralization of political and legal power, control of legal systems and adoption of legal codes, and even political privacy all seen as important to avoid social (civil) dystrophy[1] or a lapse into some undesirable state of totalitarianism or theocracy. Each of these concerns tends to make the process of governance different, as variations in these norms tend to produce a quite different kind of state. Civics was often simply concerned with the balance of power between say an aristocracyand monarchya concern echoed to this day in the struggles for power between different levels of rulerssay of the weaker nation-states to establish a binding international law that will have an effect even on the stronger ones. Thus world government is itself properly a civic problem. Also, it is the study of duties and rights of citizenship. On smaller scales, modern human development theory attempts to unify ethics and smallscale politics with the urban and rural economies of sustainable development. Notable theorists including Jane Jacobs and Carol Moore argue that political secession of either cities or distinct bio regions and cultures is an essential pre-requisite to applying any widely shared ethics, as the ethical views of urban and rural people, different cultures or those engaged in different types of agriculture, are irreconcilably different. This extreme advocacy of decentralization is hardly uncommon, and leads to the minimal theory of civics anarchism. Civics refers not to the ethical or moral or political basis by which a ruler acquires power, but only to the processes and procedures they follow in actually exercising it. Thus, some figures, e.g. Napoleon, count as totalitarian because they instituted a legal code and altered rules of succession to favor themselves and their families. Meanwhile, other figures who were arguably more cruel or arbitrary are ranked as examples of lesser public trust, because in practice they followed clearer procedures.

Recently, the concept of global civics has also been suggested as a way of applying civics in the highly interdependent and globalized world of the 21st century. Many people feel that increasing knowledge and awareness of individual citizen's rights can enhance global political and economic understanding. Powerhouses such as the United States have been criticized for minimizing public civics education opportunities in the past several years. [edit]Examples

of different types

Most civic theories are more trusting of public institutions, and can be characterizing on a scale from least (mob rule) to most (the totalitarian) degree of trust placed in the government. At the risk of extreme oversimplification, a historical view of civic theory in action suggests that the theories be ranked as follows: Philosophy Description Example

Trusting of the instincts Ochlocracy(aka: and power of large Mob Rule) groupsno consistent civics at all.[2]

Lynching

Anarchism

No government or other hierarchy, a common ethical code enforced only by Anarchist Catalonia personal governance (self-rule) and voluntary association.[3]

Minarchy

A minimal hierarchy e.g. sometimes said to include Eco-anarchism

Libertarianism

A philosophy based on the premise that all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and that personal freedom should be maximized as much as possible.

Direct democracy

Decisions made directly as advocated by Ross Perot by the people without guidance or moral suasion, usually relying

on multiple choices laid out by experts

Deliberative democracy

Decisions made by locally grouped citizens obligated to participate in consensus decision making process

as advocated by Ralph Nader

A political class of elected representatives is trusted to carry out Representative duties for the electors United democracy these may be Kingdom, Australia, Canada, USA,France, Germany, India responsible to any group in society, or none, once elected

Technocracy

Reliance on castes of bureaucrats and scientists to rule society, and define risk for the whole society China sometimes generalized into anticipatory democracy. Can be interpreted as leading to or including kleptocracy

Aristocracy

General trust in one class in society to rule and protect, e.g. members of particular noble families that have worked for and/or defended the community across many generations (i.e. "old" money), upholding traditions, standards of living, art, culture, commerce, and defense. Not to be confused

with plutocracy, where rule is based solely on financial wealth.

Theocracy

Government led by religious beliefs or culture. Theocracies are led by powerful religious Vatican City, Islamic Republic of Iran figures and follow rules based on religious documents.

Constitutional monarchy

A monarch, possibly purely symbolic and devoted to moral example, avoiding vesting such popularity in any less trustworthy United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Thailand,Canada, and political figuretypically the Netherlands tied to at least some deliberative institutions, and making the monarch a tiebreaker or mediator or coach

Absolute monarchy

A monarchy who carries absolute power, with no requirement to answer to Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Oman the legislature, judiciary, or the citizenry. Rule is generally hereditary.

Dictatorship

A political or military ruler who has the powers of the monarch(people), but whose basis for rule is not hereditary, but based upon military or political power.

Benito Mussolini, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Julius Caesar, Francisco Franco,Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro, Seyed Ali Khamenei

India
Note: examples are included only to help familiarize readers with the basic idea of the scalethey are not intended to be conclusive or to categorize these individuals other than the civics that they exercise or exemplify. [edit]Criticism

of civic education

Sudbury schools contend that values, social justice and democracy included, must be learned through experience[4][5][6][7] as Aristotle said: "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."[8] They adduce that for this purpose schools must encourage ethical behavior and personal responsibility. In order to achieve these goals schools must allow students the three great freedoms freedom of choice, freedom of action and freedom to bear the results of actionthat constitute personal responsibility.[9] The "strongest, political rationale" for democratic schools is that they teach "the virtues of democratic deliberation for the sake of future citizenship."[10] This type of education is often alluded to in the deliberative democracy literature as fulfilling the necessary and fundamental social and institutional changes necessary to develop a democracy that involves intensive participation in group decision making, negotiation, and social life of consequence.

This article is part of the series:

Constitution of India

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'Part III - Fundamental Rights' is a charter of rights contained in the Constitution of India. It guarantees civil liberties such that all Indians can lead their lives in peace and harmony as citizens of India. These include individual rights common to most liberal democracies, such as equality before law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom to practice religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil rights by means of writs such as habeas corpus. Violations of these rights result in punishments as prescribed in the Indian Penal Code, subject to discretion of the judiciary. The Fundamental Rights are defined as basic human freedoms which every Indian citizen has the right to enjoy for a

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proper and harmonious development of personality. These rights universally apply to all citizens, irrespective ofrace, place of birth, religion, caste, creed, color or Gender. They are enforceable by

the courts, subject to certain restrictions. The Rights have their origins in many sources, including England's Bill of Rights, the United States Bill of Rights and France's Declaration of the Rights of Man. The six fundamental rights recognised by the constitution are:
[1]

link http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf

1) Right to equality, including equality before law, prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and equality of opportunity in matters of employment, abolition of untouchability and abolition of titles. 2) Right to freedom which includes speech and expression, assembly, association or union, movement, residence, and right to practice any profession or occupation (some of these rights are subject to security of the State, friendly relations with foreign countries, public order, decency or morality, right to life and liberty, right to education, protection in respect to conviction in offences and protection against arrest and detention in certain cases. 3) Right against exploitation, prohibiting all forms of forced labour, child labour and traffic in human beings; 4) Right to freedom of religion, including freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion, freedom to manage religious affairs, freedom from certain taxes and freedom from religious instructions in certain educational institutes. 5) Cultural and Educational rights preserving Right of any section of citizens to conserve their culture, language or script, and right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice; and 6) Right to constitutional remedies for enforcement of Fundamental Rights. Fundamental rights for Indians have also been aimed at overturning the inequalities of pre-independence social practices. Specifically, they have also been used to abolish untouchability and hence prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. They also forbid trafficking of human beings and forced labour. They also protect cultural and educational rights of ethnic and religious minorities by allowing them to preserve their languages and also establish and administer their own education institutions. Right to property was originally a fundamental right, but is now a legal right.