Hello aspirants,
Today’s revision capsule of PSIR optional preparation covers POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION AND PARTICIPATION and NSM. There are six 20-markers, six 15-markers, and ten 10-markers from this topic in the last 12 years.
- Political Parties
| WHAT | CORE POINTS & SCHOLARS |
| Functions | Laski – parties avert dictatorship; Burke – shared principles; Somjee – link rulers/ruled. Direction of govt · elite recruitment · interest aggregation · mass mobilisation. |
| Marxist lens | Lenin – vanguard, democratic-centralism; “dictatorship of the proletariat.” |
| Classic Taxonomies | Duverger – Elitist (European/American) · Mass (Socialist, Communist, Fascist) · Intermediate. Hitchner & Levine – Pragmatic · Doctrinal · Interest. Others – cadre vs mass (Weber); branch vs caucus (Michels). |
| Party-system typologies | Duverger – single, dominant, two, multi. Blondel – 2, 2½, multi-predominant, multi-balanced. Sartori – count relevant parties + ideological distance ➜ predominant, two-party, limited pluralism, polarized pluralism. |
| Sub-types | Two-party (US/UK) · 2½-party (Germany, Canada) · Moderate vs Polarized multi (Netherlands vs Italy) · Dominant-party (LDP-Japan, ANC-SA, Cong-India) · Single-party (CPC-China). Institutionalised vs inchoate (Mainwaring). |
| Drivers of system shape | Electoral rules (FPTP → two-party; PR → multi); social cleavages; federal/unitary design; ideological polarization; economic level; globalization. |
| Special concepts | Catch-all party (Kirchheimer; Ware’s 4 causes); Spoils system (Jackson → Pendleton Act). |
| Third-World patterns | Webb – personal/family parties; Pennings – civic education; Sundquist – media; Bienen & Herbst – weak class cleavage; Sartori – religion (ISF Algeria); funding asymmetry (Malaysia, Taiwan). |
- Pressure / Interest Groups
| DIMENSION | DETAILS & NAMES |
| Definitions | Mackenzie, Finer, Shipley, Hunt – organised, non-electoral, policy-seeking. |
| Almond’s 4 types | Institutional · Associational (CII, AITUC) · Non-associational (caste, VHP) · Anomic (NBA, IAC). |
| Blondel | Community → customary & institutional; Associational → protective & promotional. |
| Duverger | Exclusive (pure lobbies), Partial, Public/Private, Pseudo (experts, media). |
| Tactics | Lobbying (US regulation), opinion-shaping, publicity, strikes/bandhs/gheraos. |
| System roles | “4th branch” (US); cabinet-centric lobbying (UK/India). Positives: representation, expertise, participation. Negatives: inequality, opacity, inconvenience, capture. |
| Developed vs Developing | Higher foreign-policy impact & tech mobilisation in North; suspicion, ethnic fear and democratizing push (Myanmar 88 generation, Nigeria NLC) in South. |
| India vs West | Target executive vs legislature; caste/religion/region vs business/professional dominance; limited foreign-policy focus. |
- (New) Social Movements
| CONTRAST | OLD (18-19 C labour/peasants) | NEW (post-1950, post-industrial) |
| Goals | material security, class | identity, environment, rights, lifestyle |
| Base | workers, peasants | students, women, minorities, “new middle class” |
| Form | hierarchical, party-linked | decentralized networks, non-violent civil disobedience |
| Scholars | Marx, Engels | Touraine, Habermas, Offe, Melucci, Inglehart |
Competing Theories
- Collective-behaviour – Smelser, Parsons (strain).
- Resource-mobilisation – McCarthy & Zald (rational use of assets).
- NSM theory – Habermas/Offe (late-capitalist contradictions).
- Action-identity – Touraine (cultural control vs technocracy).
- Identity framing – Snow, Benford; “cognitive praxis” (Eyerman & Jamison); hidden transcript (James Scott).
Key Terms
Post-materialism (Inglehart) · Autonomy (Alan Scott’s 3 levels) · Cultural politics · Submerged networks (Melucci).
Cases
- India – Chipko, NBA, Telangana, Kamtapur, Maadigaa.
- Latin America – Zapatistas, Chiapas.
- Europe – Green parties, CND.
- Evaluating Party, Group & Movement Arenas
| ARENA | STRENGTHS | PATHOLOGIES |
| Parties | articulation, accountability, stability (Hague & Harrop); opposition bulwark (Bryce); order in modern states (Huntington, Duverger). | bias, factionalism, spoils, extremist capture, administrative churn; conservative critique (Washington, Jefferson). |
| Pressure Groups | plural voice, expert input, link state–society. | elite domination, secrecy, disruptive protest. |
| Social Movements | renew values, expand citizenship, challenge technocracy. | novelty overstated, evidence thin, left-bias, vague “new middle class,” persistence of old liberal norms (Fukuyama). |
Scholar Index
Burke · Laski · Lenin · Neumann · Duverger · Blondel · Sartori · Kirchheimer · Ware · Webb · Pennings · Sundquist · Bienen & Herbst · Sartori (ISF) · Mackenzie · Finer · Bentley · Truman · Latham · Melucci · Touraine · Habermas · Offe · McCarthy & Zald · Smelser · Scott (James & Alan) · Giddens · Gusfield · Eyerman & Jamison · Inglehart · Omvedt
Practice Questions
Question 1. How does democratic politics construct citizenship? [2023/10 m]
Question 2. Critically examine the role of political parties in sustaining and stabilising democracies in the developing societies. [? [2024/15 m]
Question 3. How has the electoral democracy augmented the participation of people in the democratic process? [2022/20m]
📌 Model answers drop this evening on the Telegram channel: https://t.me/psirbyamitpratap – keep notifications on.
See you tomorrow on Day 30. Keep practicing!
—Amit Pratap Singh & Team
A quick note on submissions of copies and mentorship
- 2025 Mains writers: Cohort 2 of ATS starts on 13 July. The above practice set will serve as your revision tool, just do not miss booking your mentorship sessions for personalised feedback especially for starting tests. Come with your evaluated test copies.
- 2026 Mains writers – keep uploading through your usual dashboard. Act on the feedback and improve consistently.
- Alternate between mini-tests (O-AWFG) and full mocks (ATS) has been designed to tackle speed, content depth, and structured revision—line-by-line evaluation pinpoints your weaknesses and errors. Follow your PSIR O-AWFG & ATS schedule and use the model answers to enrich your content, as rankers recommended based on their own success.
