Hello Aspirants
Today its about Ideologies Liberalism, Socialism and Marxism.
UPSC has 3 ten-mark, 5 fifteen-mark, and 4 twenty-mark mark question from these three ideologies in last 12 years.
IDEOLOGY – CORE DEFINITIONS & DEBATES
| Line of thought | Key scholars | One-line gist | Core concepts/keywords |
| “Science of ideas” origin | Destutt de Tracy | Coined idéologie as the systematic study of ideas | ideology = neutral, scientific |
| “Ideas move history” | J.M. Keynes | “Madmen in authority … distil it from academic scribblers.” | power of ideas, policy thinking |
| Marxist rejection | Karl Marx | Ideology = false consciousness that veils exploitation; after proletarian revolution it withers away | base–super-structure, bourgeois ideology |
| Leninist revision | V. I. Lenin | Needs a scientific socialist ideology to counter the bourgeois one | party-led consciousness |
| Hegemony school | Antonio Gramsci | Ideology works through cultural hegemony – everyday “common sense” that sustains domination | civil society, organic intellectuals |
| Sociology of knowledge | Karl Mannheim | Ideology & Utopia: dominant groups’ ideas vs. aspirational utopias; both must be studied, not condemned | relation-ism, “free-floating intelligentsia” |
| Action-oriented view | Martin Seliger | Ideologies are programmes for action, not mere belief-systems | goal-orientation, mobilisation |
| Textbook synthesis | Andrew Heywood | Ideology = coherent set of ideas that explains, evaluates, orients & prescribes | four-function schema- |
LIBERALISM
1.LIBERALISM ACROSS THREE WAVES
| Wave | Scholars | Key ideas |
| 1. Classical / laissez-faire | John Locke (natural rights, consent) • Adam Smith (invisible hand) • Thomas Paine (minimal state) | Individualism, negative liberty, private property, free market |
| 2. Modern / welfare | T. H. Green (positive liberty, common good) • Influence : Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Rousseau | State as enabler; welfare, education, participatory reforms |
| 3. Neo-liberal / market-fundamentalist | F. A. Hayek (Road to Serfdom, anti-planning) • Milton Friedman (Capitalism & Freedom, monetarism) • Robert Nozick (night-watchman state) | Deregulation, privatisation, globalisation, property-absolute, “non-aggression” principle |
Modern-liberal recap (as per Derek Heater)
- Freedom ≠ mere absence of restraint; requires effective political voice
- Active state to level gross disparities, secure social security & employment
- Governance reforms to curb bureaucratic discretion
Neo-liberal critique (as per Joseph Stiglitz, Globalisation & its Discontents)
- IMF-style “one-size-fits-all” liberalisation → instability & social unrest, especially in the Global South
3. Social-Liberal Turn after the Cold War
A. From neoliberal high tide to backlash
- Post-1991 Washington-consensus reforms (free trade, privatisation, fiscal austerity) concentrate wealth, deepen inter- & intra-state inequality, and show no “trickle-down”.
- Iconic flashpoint: 1999 Seattle WTO ministerial halted by global civil-society protests, symbolising erosion of neoliberal legitimacy.
B. Amartya Sen — capacities
- Sen catapults social liberalism: markets create opportunities, but the State must invest in health, education, skills so people can actually seize them.
- Conceptual upgrade from “growth” to “capability expansion”; informs UN Human Development Index (Mehbub ul Haq).
- Governance ideal: humane (capacity-building) + good (accountable) government, delivered via state–market–civil-society partnership.
C. Joseph Stiglitz — post-Washington Consensus
- Globalisation and its Discontents (2002) & Making Globalisation Work (2006): indict IMF/World Bank for democratic deficit; demand transparency, accountability.
- “Post-WC” agenda:
- Stabilise real economy, not just prices.
- Tight financial regulation.
- Active competition policy.
- Smarter—not smaller—government.
- Heavy human-capital formation.
- Technology transfer to the South.
D. Philosophical roots — Rawls & beyond
- John Rawls, Theory of Justice: fair equality of opportunity & difference principle (“benefit the least-advantaged”).
- Inspires liberal-egalitarians: Ronald Dworkin (resource equality) and Sen (capability equality).
E. Modern vs. Social Liberalism (policy split, not theory)
| Modern Liberalism (-1940s ➜ 1970s)** | Social Liberalism (Sen) |
| Roll back markets; expand state ownership (PSUs, large welfare bureaucracies). | Let private sector lead growth; state regulates and builds capacities. |
| State as primary employer/provider. | State as enabler; civil society ensures transparency. |
F. Governance contrasts
- Neoliberal “good governance” = “minimum government, maximum governance” (regulation/facilitation only).
Social-liberal “humane governance” = good governance plus proactive public investment in human capabilities.
Important to remember: Post-Cold-War disillusionment with neoliberalism channels scholarly and policy energy into a social-liberal synthesis—markets retained, but disciplined by democracy, regulation and capability-building, with Sen and Stiglitz providing the intellectual architecture and Rawls the moral foundation.
Socialism
1. What Socialism Seeks
- Tom Bottomore: a social order that secures feasible equality of access to economic resources, knowledge, political power while minimising domination of one group over another.
- Emerged as critical alternative to capitalism, hence best grasped in contrast to it.
Capitalism vs Socialism (Marxist lens)
| Dimension | Capitalism | Socialism |
| Ownership of production | Private capital | Social control |
| Allocating resources | Market & price | Collective planning / social choice |
| Core equality | Opportunity (formal) | Outcome & socio-economic equality |
| Freedom ideal | Non-interference by state (Smith’s “invisible hand”) | Freedom from necessity; positive liberty |
- Adam Smith defended laissez-faire; Karl Marx praised its scientific drive yet decried the cost in exploitation and class antagonism (bourgeoisie vs proletariat).
2. Human Nature & Community
Socialists reject the atomistic individual; society is natural, and liberty is realised with others, not despite them.
3. Versions of Socialism
| Stream | Leading voices & core ideas |
| Pre-Marxist / Utopian | F. N. Babeuf (abolish property); Saint-Simon (redeploy Christianity; labour-based rewards); Charles Fourier (co-operative “phalansteries”); Robert Owen (self-governing communes). Marx later dismissed these as “vague socialism.” |
| Marxist / Scientific Socialism | Marx & Engels: communism is historically inevitable; class struggle drives the passage from capitalism to socialism; revolution, not reform, is the engine. |
| Post-Marxist | • Revolutionary socialism (retains insurrection). • Evolutionary / Social-democratic socialism – Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky: pursue universal suffrage, progressive taxation, welfare via parliamentary means. Kautsky: violence justified only where the vote is denied. • Revisionism: accepts class but repudiates violent overthrow. |
4. Syndicalism — “Trade-union road to a stateless society”
| Pillar | Content | Scholar |
| Origins | French labour movement; syndicat = union | |
| Intellectual leader | Georges Sorel | |
| View of state | Instrument of bourgeois rule; abolish it | |
| Agent of change | Industrial/trade unions (producers first) | C.E.M. Joad, Coker definitions |
| Method | Direct action – general strike, go-slow, sabotage, boycotts | |
| Goal | Producer-run society; “free workshop → free society” |
Contrasts with Socialism
| Socialism | Syndicalism | |
| State role | Retain & use for social ends | Abolish; state = evil |
| Constituency | Producers and consumers | Producers only |
| Strategy | Constitutional, democratic (in many strands) | Direct, often violent action |
Critiques of Syndicalism
Violent tactics, consumer neglect, vagueness on end-state, risk of “organised anarchy,” instability from general strikes.
5. Quote & Concept
- Bottomore: socialism = equality of access.
- Joad: “Socialism is like a hat… everyone wears it.”
- Sorel: myths & general strike animate worker power.
- Marx: capitalism’s progress “dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with blood and dirt.”
6. Fabian Socialism – “The Patient Road to Socialism”
Named after the Roman general Fabius Cunctator, famed for winning by deliberate delay.
| Core Element | Detail |
| Type | Bourgeois / evolutionary socialism, not proletarian-revolutionary. |
| Strategic Method | Gradual, constitutional reform through parliamentary means, public persuasion and social-conscience building. |
| Ultimate Aim | End private ownership of land and industrial capital; transfer control to the community for the common good. |
| Key Principles | 1. Slow transition from capitalism. 2. Peaceful socialisation via existing institutions. 3. Mobilise middle-class expertise to redesign administration. 4. Rouse social conscience for equality. |
| Major Propagators | Sydney & Beatrice Webb · George Bernard Shaw · Annie Besant · H. G. Wells · G. D. H. Cole · Graham Wallas · Edward R. Pease (Fabian Society pamphlets, 1884→). |
| Contrasts | • Marxism: rejects labour theory of value, class struggle, violent revolution. • Syndicalism: shuns direct-action militancy; trusts parliamentary state. |
| Critiques / Limits | Intellectual salon-ism, limited mass base; defections (e.g., Beatrice Webb later praised Soviet model); doctrine highly flexible—Cole warned socialism must stay adaptable, not dogmatic. |
7. Guild Socialism – “Industries run by self-governing guilds”
Described by Rockow as the “intellectual offspring of Fabianism and Syndicalism.”
| Core Element | Detail |
| Birthplace | England, early 20th c. |
| Leading Voices | A. J. Penty · A. R. Orage · S. G. Hobson · G. D. H. Cole |
| Intellectual Roots | ① Socialist critique of wage‐labour exploitation. ② Arts-and-Crafts hostility to dehumanising mass production (Ruskin, Morris, Carlyle). ③ Syndicalist suspicion of the state. ④ Functional theory of property (control by those who make it work). ⑤ “Authority as association” (churchman J. N. Figgis). |
| Central Tenets | • Abolish wage-labour system. • Establish self-governing producer guilds coordinating with a democratic state. • Individual benefit tied to social usefulness, not profit. |
| State Position | Keeps a limited, coordinating state—unlike Syndicalism’s abolitionist stance or Collectivism’s all-state ownership. |
| Functional Democracy | C. E. M. Joad: industries governed jointly by brain and manual workers; a democracy of functions, not naked numbers. |
| Critique of Syndicalism | Retains state framework; rejects pure producer supremacy and violent tactics, aiming for balanced producer-consumer, worker-citizen partnership. |
Marxism
1. Foundational Marxism
| Concept | One-line essence | citation |
| Historical Materialism | Material conditions drive history; each mode of production breeds new contradictions. | Karl Marx – Preface to Critique of Political Economy |
| Base / Superstructure | Forces & relations of production shape politics, law, culture; superstructure then legitimises ruling class power. | – |
| Stages of Development | Primitive communism ⇢ slavery ⇢ feudalism ⇢ capitalism ⇢ socialism ⇢ communism. | – |
| Class Conflict | History = struggle between bourgeoisie (owners) & proletariat (workers). | Communist Manifesto |
| Alienation | Worker estranged from product, process, self & fellow beings under capitalism. | Economic & Philosophic Manuscipt |
Key texts: Marx – Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital · Engels – Condition of the Working Class in England, Dialectics of Nature.
2. Orthodox Marxism
- Treats the economic base as deterministic; proletarian revolution is inevitable.
- Champions: early German & Russian parties before 1914.
3. Leninism – Marxism Adapted to Tsarist Russia
| Theme | Lenin’s twist | Source |
| Vanguard Party | Small cadre to raise class consciousness beyond “trade-unionism.” | What Is to Be Done? |
| Democratic Centralism | Free internal debate, iron unity after vote. | |
| Weakest-link thesis | Revolution erupts where capitalism least consolidated. | |
| Imperialism | “Highest stage of capitalism”; colonies sustain profit rates ⇒ need proletarian internationalism. | 1916 pamphlet |
| State & Revolution | Two stages: lower socialism (proletarian state) → higher communism (state “withers away”). | 1917 |
| Dictatorship of the Party | Party substitutes for dispersed proletariat; no rival parties. | Practice, 1918–24 |
| Trade-Unions | Useful, but subordinate to party line (not revolutionary by nature). | Sabine commentary |
| “Socialism in one country” | First broached; later codified by Stalin. |
Transitional mixed economy accepted (New Economic Policy).
4. Rosa Luxemburg – Democratic Socialist Critic
- Reform or Revolution demolishes Eduard Bernstein’s gradualism; reform helps, but revolution indispensable.
- The Mass Strike: celebrates spontaneous, political-economic strikes (1905 Russia).
- National Question: wary of self-determination overshadowing class unity (debates Lenin).
- Party Form rejects authoritarian democratic centralism; stresses workers’ democracy.
- Legacy: touchstone for socialist movements seeking a democratic alternative to liberalism and Bolshevism.
5. Maoism – Peasant Road to Socialism
| Pillar | Detail |
| Materialism & Contradictions | Distinguishes antagonistic vs non-antagonistic contradictions; socialism resolves the latter peacefully. |
| Principal Contradiction | Age of imperialism: imperialist camp vs socialist/colonial peoples ⇒ call for united front. |
| Peasantry as Vanguard | Rural masses = main revolutionary force in semi-feudal China. |
| Protracted People’s War | Guerrilla bases in countryside encircle cities. |
| Mass Line | Leaders “from the masses, to the masses” – policy through continuous consultation. |
| Great Leap Forward | 1958-62 crash industrialisation → famine; sparked CPC internal rifts. |
| Cultural Revolution | 1966-76 purge to prevent bureaucratic degeneration; remains contested. |
| Sino-Soviet Split | Clash with Khrushchev over strategy & peasant focus; accused USSR of “rightism.” |
6. George Lukács: Reification & Class Consciousness
- Reification (History and Class Consciousness, 1923): in capitalism, human relations appear as relations between things (commodities), obscuring exploitation.
- Class consciousness: the proletariat alone can penetrate this illusion, grasp the totality of social relations and act revolutionarily.
7. The Frankfurt School – From Critique to Culture
| Aspect | Content | Key names |
| Founding | Institute for Social Research, Frankfurt (1920); exile to US during Nazism. | Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas |
| Traditional vs Critical theory | Traditional = objective description that ends up legitimising status-quo. Critical = expose power & aim at emancipation. | Horkheimer (1937 essay) |
| Culture industry | Mass-produced film/TV/music standardise tastes, pacify masses, secure capitalist hegemony. | Adorno & Horkheimer (Dialectic of Enlightenment) |
| Positivism critique | Pure empiricism ignores ideology & domination, thus reinforces them. | Adorno |
| Technology debate | • Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: tech under capitalism = social control. • Benjamin: mechanical reproduction strips art’s aura. • Habermas later stresses communicative use of technology. | – |
| Public Sphere & Communicative Rationality | Habermas: a non-state, non-market arena where citizens deliberate; “ideal speech situation” seeks consensus via unforced force of the better argument (Theory of Communicative Action). | – |
8. Structural Marxism – Louis Althusser
| Concept | Outline |
| Structural determinism | Social structures (not individual wills) shape outcomes. |
| ISAs & RSAs | Ideological State Apparatuses (schools, media) reproduce consent; Repressive SAs (police, courts) enforce order. |
| Interpellation | Ideology “hails” individuals, constituting them as subjects. |
| Over-determination | Events stem from multiple, intersecting contradictions—superstructure has relative autonomy. |
9. Neo-Marxist Theory of the State
Nicos Poulantzas – Relative Autonomy
- State is not a mere bourgeois instrument; it is a structure that mediates class conflicts to secure capitalist order, enjoying conditional autonomy that contracts in crisis.
Ralph Miliband – Instrumentalist Counter
- The State in Capitalist Society (1969): elite background of officials + wealth power fuse state and capitalist class; welfare reforms leave class rule intact.
Miliband ↔ Poulantzas Debate (New Left Review, 1969–70)
- Miliband: direct unity of class and state power.
- Poulantzas: state is an arena of struggle; autonomy helps capitalism survive.
- Set the terms for later state theory inside Marxism.
10. Supporting Currents & References
- James Burnham – Managerial Revolution challenged by Miliband.
- Antonio Gramsci – earlier rescue of Marxism from “crude economic determinism” (context for the debate).
Scholars Index
Theodor Adorno | Louis Althusser | Aristotle | François-Noël Babeuf | Annie Besant | Walter Benjamin | Eduard Bernstein | Tom Bottomore | James Burnham | G. D. H. Cole | Friedrich Engels | Charles Fourier | Milton Friedman | Antonio Gramsci | T. H. Green | Mehbub ul Haq | Jürgen Habermas | F. A. Hayek | Derek Heater | Hegel | Max Horkheimer | Immanuel Kant | J. M. Keynes | Karl Kautsky | V. I. Lenin | John Locke | C. E. M. Joad | Karl Mannheim | Herbert Marcuse | Karl Marx | Ralph Miliband | Robert Owen | Thomas Paine | A. J. Penty | Edward R. Pease | Plato | Nicos Poulantzas | A. R. Orage | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | John Rawls | Amartya Sen | Martin Seliger | George Bernard Shaw | Georges Sorel | Joseph Stiglitz | Adam Smith | Beatrice Webb | Sydney Webb | H. G. Wells
Practice Questions (Write before 4 p.m.)
Question 1. Comment on decline of Liberalism [2024/10m]
Question 2. Marxism is a political theory of action demanding strict compliance with its core principles. Comment. [2024/15m]
Question 3. Comment on the view that ‘socialism in the 21st century may be reborn as anti-capitalism’. [2014/20m]
📌 Model answers drop this evening on the Telegram channel: https://t.me/psirbyamitpratap – keep notifications on.
See you tomorrow on Day 9. Keep practicing!
—Amit Pratap Singh & Team
A quick note on submissions of copies and mentorship
- 2025 Mains writers: Cohort 1 of O-AWFG kicks off 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. This topic is in test 4 of PSIR-AWFG and ATS 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.
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