PSIR Power 50 – Day 1 Capsule + Practice Qs

Hello Aspirants,

Welcome to Day 1 of your PSIR Power 50 revision. In this concise capsule, you’ll revisit every key concept and scholar’s insight covered in our Foundation Course in the topic- Political Theory.

Revise the topic thoroughly, and if you are unable to recall any part of the summary content given below, refer to your class notes and handouts. If you are already confident with the topic, you can proceed directly to the practice questions and start writing.

Please note that UPSC has asked 8 ten-mark questions, 3 fifteen-mark questions, and 1 twenty-mark question from this topic in last 12 years.

1. Why Politics?

• From Greek polis (city-state). Politics is “the art of the possible,” the craft of reconciling differences to reach binding collective decisions.
• Aristotle: “Man is by nature a political animal.”
• Politics is power-laden—acquiring, retaining, exercising it. Garner’s state-centric maxim—“Political science starts and ends with the state”—now competes with society-wide readings.

2. Political Theory vs Political Science

3. Political Philosophy, Theory, Ideology, Thought – Know the Splits

“Every political philosopher is a theorist, but not every theorist a philosopher.” — exam-worthy line.

4. Five-Stage evolution of Political Science

1. Greek–Ethical – Aristotle dubs it the “master science”; Barker calls it architectonic.
2. Medieval–Theological – St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas fuse politics with salvation.
3. Renaissance / Enlightenment – Machiavelli separates power from morality; Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu add social contract, rights, separation of powers.
4. Behavioural Turn – stats & surveys; David Easton wants politics “as it is, not as it ought.”
5. Post-Behaviouralism – Easton’s “Credo of Relevance” reunites values with data.

5. Approaches & Their Critics

Jacobson warns against both scientism & moralism; balance is key.

6. Normative ↔ Empirical Debate (Rapid Grid)

7. Textual vs Contextual Interpretation

• Textual: text as timeless artefact; risk = anachronism (think virtù vs virtue).
• Contextual: embed writings in economic-political milieu.
  • C.B. Macpherson reads Locke through emergent bourgeois lens.
  • James Tully situates Locke’s property theory amid dissenters’ rights.
• Critics ask: if every text is context-bound, can old ideas still guide today?

8. Key Quotes

• “Politics is the authoritative allocation of values.” — Easton
• “History is the best guide to politics.” — Machiavelli
• “Without science, theory is worthless ethical residue.” — paraphrasing Jacobson
• “Man is a political animal.” — Aristotle

9. Positivism → Behaviouralism: “Count what is, ignore what ought.”

David Easton distilled eight foundations—Regularities · Verification · Techniques · Quantification · Value-Neutrality · Systematization · Pure Science · Integration.

10. Why Behaviouralism peaked – and cracked

Achievements
Precision, survey tools, comparative data; made political science look “scientific.”

Limitations

1. Over-complication – jargon > clarity.
2. Reductionism – numbers flatten nuance.
3. Reality gap – “ivory-tower” retreat (critique by Leo Strauss).
4. Ethical vacuum – values labelled metaphysical.
5. Status-quo bias – avoided big moral questions.

(Expect a 10-marker in O-AWFG T-1.)

11. Post-Behaviouralism – Easton’s Credo of Relevance

• Trigger: 1960s crises—war, poverty, civil rights.
• Intellectual sparks: Thomas Kuhn (paradigms) · Karl Popper (falsification).
• Mantra: “Substance before technique.” — Easton, 1969 APSA Address
• Five watch-words: Action · Relevance · Social change · Values · Reality-connection.

“To know is to bear responsibility for acting.” — Easton

Critiques

• Philip Beardsley: science vs relevance is a false dichotomy.
• Still leans on systems theory it once denounced (Waldo: “raving, rumbling structure without destiny”).

(Expect a 15-marker in ATS T-1)

12. Critical School: Behaviouralism = Status-quo Science?

Yet even critics admit Behaviouralism’s technique revolution (see Talcott Parsons).

New topic?

13. Decline → Resurgence of Political Theory

Why it declined (per Easton)
Historicism · Moral relativism · Hyper-factualism · Science fetish.

*Mid-century verdict (Alfred Cobban): theory “played no role” in both capitalism & communism.

Why it bounced back

 Scholar Index –

Adorno · Alfred Cobban · Aristotle · Auguste Comte · Barker · Beardsley · Berlin · British Idealists (Bradley, Bosanquet) · Charles Merriam · C.B. Macpherson · Dante Germino · David Easton · Frank Kent · Gabriel Almond · Garner · Harold Lasswell · Hannah Arendt · Herbert Marcuse · Herbert Tingsten · Hobbes · Isaiah Berlin · J.S. Mill · James Tully · Jürgen Habermas · Karl Marx · Karl Popper · Leo Strauss · Locke · Logical Positivists · Laski · Machiavelli · Michael Oakeshott · Montesquieu · Philip Beardsley · Plato · Rousseau · Sabine · St Augustine · St Thomas Aquinas · Talcott Parsons · Thomas Kuhn · V.O. Key · Waldo (Dwight)

(Cohort 1 of O-AWFG & ATS programmes, starting 11 June, will track these shifts through and my evaluation will be looking for the contextual mentioning of these scholars in your copies)

 Practice Questions (Write before 4 p.m.)

1. Write on the Systems Approach. (UPSC 2022, 10 m)
2. ‘Credo of Relevance’ in post-behaviouralism advocates the importance of action science. Analyse. (UPSC 2023, 15 m)
3. Elucidate the meanings inherent in the term ‘political’ with appropriate illustrations. (UPSC 2024, 20 m)

📌 Model answers drop this evening on the Telegram channel: https://t.me/psirbyamitpratap – keep notifications on.

 A quick note on submissions of copies and mentorship

• 2025 Mains writers: Cohort 1 of O-AWFG kicks off 11 June and ATS on 15 June. The above practice set will serve as your revision tool for Test 1, 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—today’s capsule aligns with your Week 1.
• 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.

Happy writing—see you tomorrow with Day 2!

—Amit Pratap Singh & Team