• Congress party itself adopted a resolution to establish a ‘socialistic pattern of society’ in its Avadi session
• Indian brand of socialism is a ‘democratic socialism’ and not a ‘communistic socialism’ (also known as ‘state socialism’)
• Democratic socialism- holds faith in a ‘mixed economy’ where both public and private sectors co-exist side by side
• Indian socialism is a blend of Marxism and Gandhism, leaning heavily towards the Gandhian socialism( stateless society)- UPSC PRE 2020

• added by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976
• positive concept of secularism i.e, all religions in our country (irrespective of their strength) have the same status and support from the state

• doctrine of popular sovereignty, that is, possession of supreme power by the people ( it calls into activity the intelligence and character of ordinary man and women) UPSC 2017
• Direct democracy, the people exercise their supreme power directly as is the case in Switzerland– four devices of direct democracy, namely, Referendum, Initiative, Recall and Plebiscite
• Referendum is a procedure whereby a proposed legislation is referred to the electorate for settlement by their direct votes. Initiative is a method by means of which the people can propose a bill to the legislature for enactment.

Recall is a method by which the voters can remove a representative or an officer before the expiry of his term, when he fails to discharge his duties properly.

Plebiscite is a method of obtaining the opinion of people on any issue of public importance. It is generally used to solve territorial disputes.

• Indirect democracy, on the other hand, the representatives elected by the people exercise the supreme power and thus carry on the government and make the laws FOR EG. INDIA
• The principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy

• the head of the state is always elected directly or indirectly for a fixed period, e.g., USA
• India has an elected head called the president. He is elected indirectly for a fixed period of five years
• A republic also means two more things: vesting of political sovereignty in the people and not in king;

second, the absence of any privileged class and hence all public offices being opened to every citizen without any discrimination

The Preamble secures to all citizens of India liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship

word ‘integrity’ has been added to the preamble by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment (1976)