Hello Aspirants,
Day 2 brings the topic Theories of State. Many of you tell me in mentorship sessions, “I can’t finish revision,” “I’m unsure what counts as enough content,” or “I never complete the paper on time.” These capsules targets all three: crisp recall cues, analytic depth, and subtle hints on how O-AWFG mini-tests and ATS full-length mocks break the blockage before Mains.
The writeup summarises PSIR Foundation lectures at Forum, treat this as a one-stop recap; if a term feels new, your class notes carries the description – go back to it.
Please note that UPSC has asked 5 ten-mark questions, 3 fifteen-mark questions, and 3 twenty-mark questions from this topic in last 12 years.
1. What is the State? —
- Population · Territory · Sovereignty · Government – the four pillars.
- Max Weber: the state holds “a monopoly of the legitimate use of violence.”
- Key features – sovereignty, public institutions, legitimation, coercion, territorial identity.
2. Species of States (know the labels)
| Type | Tag line | Champions / Examples |
| Minimalist | Night-watchman | Classical/Neo-Liberals, Robert Nozick |
| Developmental | Market-partner | Post-war Japan, S. Korea; Democratic Socialists |
| Social-Democratic | Welfare guarantor | Nordic models |
| Collectivist | Everything nationalised | Orthodox communist regimes |
| Totalitarian | Life under one will | Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini |
[Expect a 10-marker on this spread in O-AWFG Test 1 – 11 June (Cohort 1)]
3. State ≠ Government
The state is permanent and impersonal; the government is the rotating “brain.” The former represents the public good; the latter may chase partisan wins.
4. Why the State matters – six ideological takes
- Liberals (Hobbes, Locke): a “necessary evil.”
- Anarchists (Proudhon, Bakunin): an unnecessary evil.
- Marxists: tool of the bourgeoisie (Engels) – though structuralists grant “relative autonomy.”
- Democratic Socialists: redistributor of justice.
- Conservatives: guardian of order and tradition.
- Anarchist critique: institutionalised coercion.
5. Big Voices on the State
Garner – “Political science begins and ends with the state.”
Hoffman – the unavoidable focal point.
David Easton – definitional hair-splitting leads to “conceptual morass.”
Neera Chandhoke – civil society re-creates social power inside state parameters.
6. State ↔ Society → Civil Society
Civil society once checked mercantilist crowns; today it is the arena of voluntary power. Remember Machiavelli, Bodin, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, G.D.H. Cole, Robert Nozick for their contrasting labels (stato, republic, commonwealth, body politic, guild, protective agency).
7. Sovereignty – from Bodin to Burgess
Sovereignty – From Bodin to Laski
Superanus ⇒ supreme. Without sovereignty the “state” is a crowd.
A Core Definition & Early Voices
- Jean Bodin (1576) – first systematic doctrine: “supreme power over citizens, unrestrained by law.”
- John William Burgess – sovereignty is original, absolute, unlimited power over all persons and associations.
- Soltau – the state’s “final legal coercive power.”
B Monistic (Austinian) Sovereignty
| Pillar | Content | Scholar / Quote |
| Determinate superior | One locus commands, many obey | Thomas Hobbes seeds it; John Austin perfects it |
| Habitual obedience | Sovereign habitually receives obedience, need not render it | “The power of a determinate human superior … not in a habit of obedience.” — Austin, Lectures on Jurisprudence |
| Law = command + sanction | Law is the sovereign’s expressed will, backed by force | – |
| Indivisible, absolute, unlimited | No split of authority; church, guild, province all subordinate | – |
Historical backdrop: medieval Europe’s fragmented authority → chaos. Austin’s hammer restored order: one state = one will.
C Cracks in the Hammer – Early Critics
- Sir Henry Maine: Eastern polities show custom trumping any “determinate superior.”
- Federal practice (U.S., Switzerland): one territory, two sovereign spheres.
- Custom & convention coexist with positive law → Austin cannot account for them.
D Pluralist Turn – Power in Many Keys
| Argument | Key Voice |
| State is one association among many | G.D.H. Cole, J.N. Figgis |
| “Since society is federal, authority should also be federal.” | Harold Laski |
| Sovereignty diffused across voluntary groups, churches, unions | Robert MacIver, associational pluralism |
| Federalism proves Austinian indivisibility “an impossible misadventure” | Laski |
Statism, warns Hegel, can slide into mysticism: the state as “march of God on earth.” Pluralism arose to tame that absolutism, especially after militarism and fascism misused “organic” sovereignty.
Moderate vs Extreme Pluralists
| Point of Divergence | Moderate Pluralists (Laski) | Extreme Pluralists (MacIver) |
| Primacy of state | Yes – keystone of social architecture | No – just another association |
| Role of intermediary groups | Shield individuals from state tyranny | Primary actors; state exists to serve them |
| Service state idea | — | “The state commands because it serves.” |
E Monism 2.0 – Absolute v. Concrete
- Absolute Monism: every institution subordinate; today largely theoretical.
- Concrete Monism: accepts functional autonomy yet reserves final supremacy for the state.
F Post-1945 Realities – Erosion & Layer-Cake
- Supranational rise – UN, EU, WTO, ICC chip away at “no external superior.”
- International conventions – human-rights covenants bind even domestic legislators.
- Globalisation – capital flows out-run territorial commands; “pooled” sovereignty emerges.
Pluralism thus morphs into multilevel governance—a favourite UPSC phrase in recent essays.
G Contemporary Re-mix
- Cyber domain: who is sovereign—state, platform, or protocol?
- Pandemic treaties & climate compacts revive debates on “shared” coercive power.
- In India, Basic Structure doctrine shows constitutional courts as guardians over even Parliament—Austin would wince.
8. Liberal Theory of State – the Dogma of Jurisdiction
“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” — Lord Acton
a. Bounded Authority
- Dogma of jurisdiction: state’s reach is legally circumscribed; beyond that, it must not trespass.
- John Locke: the state secures life, liberty, property—nothing more.
b. Rule of Law
- A.V. Dicey: equality before law; no arbitrary commands.
- J.S. Mill: liberty ends only where harm begins; truth surfaces in the clash of views.
c. Separation of Powers
- Montesquieu: legislative, executive, judicial fire-walls to prevent tyranny.
- Modern liberals add independent regulators and a free press as “fourth” and “fifth” estates.
d. Multiple Power Centres & Pluralism
- Competing parties, pressure groups, federal tiers.
- Neutral umpire ideal—state arbitrates among clashing interests without itself becoming a partisan.
e. Reformist yet Flexible
- From Keynes–Beveridge welfare state to Rawls’s “justice as fairness” the liberal state can enlarge its toolbox, but always under procedural restraint.
- Friedrich Hayek reminds: planning beyond a point erodes freedom.
f. Contemporary Tension
- Digital surveillance vs privacy, climate action vs property rights: modern liberals debate how much expansion still counts as “limited.”
9. Post-Colonial take – soft, overdeveloped, prismatic
| Lens | Core Insight | Scholar |
| Soft State | Rules exist, aren’t enforced | Gunnar Myrdal |
| Prismatic/Bazaar-Canteen | Modern shells, traditional guts | F.W. Riggs |
| Over-developed State | Massive apparatus, thin economy | Hamza Alavi |
| Dependency | Development of under-development | A.G. Frank, Samir Amin, Immanuel Wallerstein |
| Psychology of violence | Decolonisation of mind | Frantz Fanon |
| Neo-colonialism | Economic strings linger | Kwame Nkrumah |
| Subaltern voice | “Can the subaltern speak?” | Ranajit Guha, Gayatri Spivak |
10. Anarchist Theory of the State – “The urge to destroy is a creative urge.”
| Strand | Core Claim | Signature Voices & Quotes |
| Mutualist / Cooperative | Property rights create hierarchy; swap them for voluntary exchange | Pierre-Joseph Proudhon – “Property is theft.” |
| Collectivist / Insurrectionary | Spontaneous mass revolt; dictatorship of the proletariat merely swaps masters | Mikhail Bakunin – state power “corrupts those who exercise it.” |
| Anarcho-Communist | Free federation of communes; mutual aid > competition | Peter Kropotkin |
| Anarcho-Syndicalist | Trade-union strike power will smash the state; workers self-manage production | Rudolf Rocker |
| Individualist | Only the Ego is real; state is a ghost | Max Stirner – “I have based my cause on nothing.” |
| Contemporary | Corporate-state nexus moulds public opinion; resist via grassroots | Noam Chomsky – “manufacture of consent” |
Analytical points
- Society ≠ State – society is spontaneous order; the state monopolises coercion.
- Violence critique – all states rest on organised force; legitimacy is fiction.
- Positive vision – decentralised federations, direct democracy, cooperative economics.
- Fascist / Authoritarian Theory of the State – “Everything within the State, nothing outside the State.”
| Pillar | Idea | Key Figures & Notes |
| Totalitarian Unity | State is organic, transcends individuals | Benito Mussolini, Giovanni Gentile (actual chief theorist) |
| Corporatism | Economy run via state-supervised professional corporations; class conflict dissolved in nationalism | Fascist Italy’s “corporazioni” |
| Statolatry | State worship = moral duty | Mussolini |
| Friend–Enemy Principle | Politics founded on existential antagonism | Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political |
| Limited Pluralism | Authoritarian regimes lack mass mobilisation yet suppress opposition | Juan Linz – “limited political pluralism, no guiding ideology” |
| Syndicalist Roots | Georges Sorel’s “myth of the general strike” feeds fascist glorification of violence | |
| Social Darwinism | Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca – elite circulation legitimises hierarchy |
Critique
- Liberals: violates rule of law, suppresses rights.
- Marxists: class-based tool of monopoly capital.
- Feminists & minorities: erases difference in a “masculinist” nation-body.
12. Feminist Theories of the State – Patriarchy institutionalised
| Wave / School | State Diagnosis | Key scholars |
| Liberal Feminism | State can re-engineer equality via rights & education | Mary Wollstonecraft, Betty Friedan |
| Socialist / Marxist Feminism | Dual systems: capitalism + patriarchy exploit women’s labour | Clara Zetkin, Heidi Hartmann (two-system theory) |
| Radical Feminism | State is male power organised; law normalises domination | Andrea Dworkin, Shulamith Firestone |
| Post-modern / Queer | State categories (male/female, public/private) are discursive constructs | Judith Butler – gender as performativity |
| Legal-Critical | Law “neutralises” male dominance; pornography & harassment reflect systemic power | Catharine MacKinnon, Towards a Feminist Theory of the State |
| Psycho-analytic | Western metaphysics coded as masculine logic; need écriture féminine | Luce Irigaray |
Key threads
- Public / Private split – feminist critique shows the “private” is political.
- Intersectionality – class, race, caste entwine with gender (Kimberlé Crenshaw, Dalit-feminists for India).
- Reform vs Revolution – liberals lobby the state; radicals aim to dismantle patriarchal structures.
- Strategic Essentialism – Gayatri Spivak says -unite but stay alert to internal hierarchies.
Scholar Index –
Aristotle · Plato · Augustine · Aquinas · Machiavelli · Bodin · Hobbes · Locke · Rousseau · Montesquieu · Weber · Barker · Garner · Sabine · Dunning · Laski · MacIver · Jacobson · Catlin · Leo Strauss · Isaiah Berlin · Germino · Heywood · Chandhoke · Lasswell · Easton · Dahl · Merriam · V.O. Key · Almond · Tingsten · Deutsch · von Bertalanffy · Popper · Kuhn · Mill · Marx · Engels · Cobban · Maine · Parsons · Myrdal · Riggs · Alavi · Frank · Amin · Wallerstein · Fanon · Nkrumah · Ranajit Guha · Spivak · Wollstonecraft · Friedan · Zetkin · Hartmann · Butler · Irigaray · MacKinnon · Proudhon · Bakunin · Kropotkin · Rocker · Stirner · Chomsky · Schmitt Linz.
(Copies in ATS diagnostics that name-check fewer scholars scored 25-35 marks lower, YET inclusion of scholars should be contextual and organic)
Practice Questions – write before 4 p.m.
- Comment on the post-colonial theory of the State. (UPSC 2020, 10 m)
- “Eurocentrism is both the target and the motive force of post-colonial political theory.” Discuss. (UPSC 2023, 15 m)
- Examine the liberal theory of State in contemporary politics. (UPSC 2022, 20 m)
📌 Model answers drop this evening on the Telegram channel: https://t.me/psirbyamitpratap – set an alert.
Quick logistics
- 2025 Mains writers: O-AWFG Cohort 1 launches 11 June; ATS goes live 15 June. Today’s answer set doubles as your warm-up task—bring the evaluated answer copiesin mentorship sessions and ensure that you get the personalised feedback.
- 2026 Mains writers: keep uploading on the dashboard; this capsule aligns with Week 1 of your schedule.
- If you struggle with speed, content depth or structured revision, the alternation of micro-tests (O-AWFG) and full mocks (ATS) is engineered to solve exactly that—line-by-line feedback lands within 48 hours, so bottlenecks don’t linger.
See you tomorrow with Day 3—until then, keep the pen moving!
—Amit Pratap Singh & Team
| Click Here to Download the PDF of Day 2 |
