Hello aspirants,
Today’s revision capsule of PSIR optional preparation covers STATE IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE. There are one 20-markers, two 15-markers, and four 10-markers from this topic in the last 12 years.
THE STATE — A COMPARATIVE VIEW
| CAPITALIST CORE (advanced) | SOCIALIST / COMMUNIST | DEVELOPING / POST-COLONIAL | AUTHORITARIAN VARIANTS | COLLAPSE / GLOBAL TRANSFORM | |
| Foundational Charter | Westphalia → territorial-sovereign state; private property central. | Marx → Lenin: state = “executive committee of bourgeoisie”; must be smashed → dictatorship of proletariat → eventual withering (Engels). | Borders & bureaucracy imposed by empire (Alavi “over-developed” state). | Fascist / Totalitarian (Gentile, Hitler): unitary, organic, mobilising; Bureaucratic-Authoritarian in Latin America (O’Donnell). | Failed state (Rotberg) loses coercive monopoly; “rogue” label in US policy; sovereignty eroded by globalisation (Bell). |
| Legitimate Power (Weber) | Rational-legal; rule-of-law; separation-of-powers (Locke; Montesquieu). | Revolutionary-legal; one-party vanguard (Lenin), later bureaucratic ossification (Trotsky critique, Miliband). | Mixed: patrimonial ties + formal legality → neo-patrimonial (Shivji, Leys). | Charismatic / traditional fused with mass-party and terror (Friedrich–Brzezinski six-point syndrome). | Authority vacuum; militias & MNCs fill gap; IMF conditionalities curb autonomy. |
| Economic Governance | Night-watchman (Smith) → Keynesian welfare (Hobhouse, Keynes) → Neo-liberal rollback (Hayek, Nozick). | Central planning; collective ownership; later market-socialism or state capitalism (China, Vietnam). | Developmental state aspiration (Johnson; Evans) but dependency constraints (Frank, Amin). | Corporatist control of capital/labour (Gentile; Nazi autarky); in B-A regimes technocrats + multinationals. | IMF SAPs shift decisions abroad; supply-chain global firms out-scale state tax reach. |
| Class & Hegemony | Pluralists (Dahl) see dispersed power; Gramsci shows civil-society hegemony; Poulantzas: relative state autonomy. | Proletariat vs bourgeoisie; state as repressive apparatus; Althusser adds Ideological State Apparatuses. | Triple alliance: local elites, military-bureaucracy, foreign capital (Alavi). | Elite circulation (Pareto, Mosca, Michels); mass atomised via propaganda. | Fragmented, identity-based conflict; humanitarian intervention debates. |
| Citizenship / Rights | Liberal-democratic expansion: Paine (manhood suffrage), Wollstonecraft (gender), welfare entitlements. | Rights subordinated to class struggle; later constitutions codify social guarantees but suppress dissent. | Post-colonial constitutions promise socio-economic rights; delivery hampered by weak capacity. | Rights conditional on loyalty; minorities persecuted. | Human-rights regime pierces sovereignty; ICC, R2P norms. |
| Civil Society | Tocqueville’s associations buffer state; strong parties, media. | Party absorbs society; grassroots organs initially (soviets) later marginalized. | Often thin; NGOs, ethnic networks replace absent welfare. | Subordinated or corporatised. | INGOs, digital networks transcend state borders. |
KEY THEORETICAL LINES
- Hegel: state = ethical whole;
- Gandhi: “soulless machine of violence.”
- Classical Liberal → Welfare Liberal → Neo-liberal arc (Locke → Bentham → Hobhouse → Hayek).
- Marxist continuum: Marx & Engels → Lenin (State and Revolution) → Stalin (totalitarian) → Gramsci (hegemony) → Miliband (instrumental) vs Poulantzas (structural).
- Dependency / World-System: Baran, Frank, Rodney; Wallerstein core-periphery; Chase-Dunn, Abu-Lughod revisions.
- Modes-of-Production / Articulation: Alavi, Amin; coexistence of capitalist & pre-capitalist forms.
- Weber: monopoly of legitimate violence + bureaucracy.
- Fabians / Social Democrats: gradualist socialism, welfare state (Bernstein, Beveridge).
- Fascist–Totalitarian: Gentile doctrine, Hitler’s Volk-state, Friedrich & Brzezinski model.
- Contemporary challenges: Globalisation (Bell), Supranational law (EU, ICC), Failed-state discourse (Rotberg).
TRAJECTORIES OF CHANGE
Capitalist core: feudal absolutism → liberal constitutionalism → mass democracy → Keynesian welfare →
neo-liberal/global.
2. Socialist bloc: czarist autocracy → revolutionary seizure → party-bureaucratic consolidation → reform/market opening
or collapse.
3. Developing world: colonial extraction → post-independence nation-building → developmental/authoritarian mixes →
debt-led adjustment & civil-society resurgence.
4. Authoritarian off-shoots: crisis of liberalism (inter-war) produced fascism; Cold-War produced B-A regimes;
post-9/11 securitisation strengthened surveillance states.
State Forms Today
| Context | Core Traits | Current Pressures / Trajectory |
| Advanced-industrial (OECD / “Global North”) | • Long-mature bureaucratic-democratic states • Post-imperial cores still set financial, cultural norms | • 2001-on: relative power erosion as Asia rises; manufacturing hollowed out • 2008 crisis ⇒ wage‐stagnation, job loss, migration fears → surge of neo-right / populism (Trump, Le Pen, AfD, Sweden Democrats) |
| Capitalist economies (generic) | • Formal mass democracy; high rights-awareness • Real policy skewed to business elites (Marx/Miliband; elite theory) | • Globalisation & outsourcing → inequality, protest waves (Occupy, Yellow-Vests, BLM) • In downturns, politics polarises: Left populism (Mélanchon, Syriza) vs. neo-nationalist Right |
| Socialist/once-socialist bloc | • Leninist “party-state”; aim of proletarian rule became party dictatorship | • USSR/E.Europe: 1990s shift to electoral forms but drift back to managed/illiberal regimes (Russia, Hungary) • China: tighter CCP grip under Xi; DPRK unchanged • Latin-left (Venezuela, Bolivia) faces economic and external shocks |
| Developing / post-colonial (Global South) | • Legacies: colonial “over-developed” bureaucratic-military core (Alavi); soft-state, prismatic or dependent periphery (Riggs, Myrdal, Frank) | • Widespread electoral adoption since 1990s, yet institutions fragile; many semi-authoritarian • Global right-ward drift visible (e.g., Brazil, Philippines) • Persistent poverty, mal-governance, external economic constraints |
Scholars Index
Abu-Lughod | Alavi | Althusser | Amin | Baran | Bell | Bentham | Bernstein | Beveridge | Brzezinski | Chase-Dunn | Dahl | Engels | Evans | Frank | Friedrich | Gandhi | Gentile | Gramsci | Hayek | Hegel | Hitler | Hobhouse | Johnson | Keynes | Lenin | Locke | Marx | Michels | Miliband | Montesquieu | Mosca | Nozick | O’Donnell | Paine | Pareto | Poulantzas | Rodney | Rotberg | Shivji | Smith | Stalin | Tocqueville | Trotsky | Wallerstein | Weber | Wollstonecraft
Practice Questions
Question 1. What are the difficulties faced by a political theorist in comparing the States? [2023/10 m]
Question 2. What are the distinctive features of the post-modern state in the advanced capitalist economies? [2024/15 m]
Question 3. “The post-colonial state was thought of an entity that stood outside and above society as an autonomous agency.” Explain. [2021/20m]
📌 Model answers drop this evening on the Telegram channel: https://t.me/psirbyamitpratap – keep notifications on.
See you tomorrow on Day 29. Keep practicing!
—Amit Pratap Singh & Team
A quick note on submissions of copies and mentorship
- 2025 Mains writers: Cohort 1 of O-AWFG started on 12 June and ATS on 15 June. 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.
