Subscribe to ForumIAS

PSIR - Strategy, resources & discussion


He mentions this thing about fractured multilateralism which I felt like would be an excellent point to include in answers which is quotable. Also he mentions about India's nuclear policy. I don't think it's something that we can quote him on, but it's still a good general view that we can include in our answers.

8.1k views
Does anyone have a link to toppers answer copies? Specifically answers on questions on International Relations section. 
5.7k views
In today's editorials in the Hindu there was a line I really liked. "Theory of interests is superseding ideology in foreign policy." I felt like this statement also goes along very well with the "world of convergences" as described by our EAM. 
4.2k views

Caesarsaid

In today's editorials in the Hindu there was a line I really liked. "Theory of interests is superseding ideology in foreign policy." I felt like this statement also goes along very well with the "world of convergences" as described by our EAM. 

Has this been not mostly the case with India? Interests over ideology?

Well interests has been at the core of foreign policy throughout history for sure, but in the few decades after the establishment of the UN ideology played a significant role (liberalism and democracy). For example, NAM was a policy created as both an ideology and in the self-interest of developing nations. In the current scenario, NAM has lost its relevance. Not because it's ideology is flawed but because nations like India find no real benefit from it i.e. interests. So I would argue that while interests were always a core part of foreign policy, the role of ideology has decreased which causes the relative importance of interests to increase in foreign policy formulation. So the statement that the theory of interests is superseding ideology doesn't mean interests were not present before, but only that it is gaining more importance than ideology. Though I think the realist school of international relations would argue that ideology has never played a role in international relations and that it was only interest or the drive for power that shaped international politics. 

4k views
Also Brexit could be taken as another example. The ideology behind the EU still holds true but the self-interests of the British were seen to be negatively impacted which is what resulted in Brexit. 
4k views
» show previous quotes

Well interests has been at the core of foreign policy throughout history for sure, but in the few decades after the establishment of the UN ideology played a significant role (liberalism and democracy). For example, NAM was a policy created as both an ideology and in the self-interest of developing nations. In the current scenario, NAM has lost its relevance. Not because it's ideology is flawed but because nations like India find no real benefit from it i.e. interests. So I would argue that while interests were always a core part of foreign policy, the role of ideology has decreased which causes the relative importance of interests to increase in foreign policy formulation. So the statement that the theory of interests is superseding ideology doesn't mean interests were not present before, but only that it is gaining more importance than ideology. Though I think the realist school of international relations would argue that ideology has never played a role in international relations and that it was only interest or the drive for power that shaped international politics. 

That’s a good explanation. 

Is there any example of a decision being made by a country choosing ideology and sacrificing a significant interest? Most examples have both in the same direction.

This would be a realist view, but one could say that ideology has always been a nice way to package and back up decisions that were made based on practical interests, like the European identity ideal for the EEC/EU, or NAM. As the world order stabilises with respect to one country’s dominance (US), or as a nation’s confidence and consequence in the world rise (India) the ideological cover might simply become unnecessary to sell a stand taken, both at home and globally. Might enables assertion of right. Besides, an ideology compatible with present day issues, that are far more complex, is naturally harder to devise. Perhaps what seems like pragmatism today, with enough academic writing and debate about it, might even be representable as ideology tomorrow!

Yupp exactly. Ideology will never survive unless it overlaps with interests.

3.9k views
Hello guys!. Preparing for 2022. As I have started just 2 months back. Thinking of PSIR as an optional. As I am working so the dynamic part and overlap with GS may help and I am interested in thinkers. Is PSIR good for a working professional? And What about coaching? Shubra Ranjan tablet course will do? Or Piyush Choubey? Guide please.

I personally think if you are someone that can decently understand concepts when you read about them and just spend some time thinking things through coaching is not necessary. Like if you can comprehend what is being written in books like OP Gauba and Andrew Heywood, coaching is not a must. I personally read the basic books and used SR notes for value addition. This works for Section A of both papers. For IR, I just read a lot of articles and books on it because I have a lot of interest in the subject. For Section B of Paper I, I don't really know. It's, by far, my weakest part of PSIR. 

3.9k views

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/is-political-correctness-a-force-for-good


This doesn't really have anything to do with the exam, but I thought it was an interesting topic. 

4.1k views
Can anyone give any good criticisms of Pluralist theory of State with scholars?
4k views

@MarcusA So 2 pages for 10 marks, 3 pages for 15 marks and 4 pages for 20 marks? 

5.2k views
From where and how are you covering Section B of Paper I? I never covered it in a comprehensive manner and I personally find it the most difficult part of PSIR.
4.5k views



4.2k views

So i'm guessing you guys read about the criticism of India at the UN for only condemning hatred against the Abrahamic religions. It talks about furthering the "clash of civilizations". I have a strong feeling that the officer who drafted that speech had PSIR as his/her optional subject :joy:

4.1k views

Caesarsaid

From where and how are you covering Section B of Paper I? I never covered it in a comprehensive manner and I personally find it the most difficult part of PSIR.

Selective topics could be done from BL Fadia(sm, pg)

Freedom movement, perspective from Sekhar Bandopadhyay or Bipin chandra

Selective constitution topics from Bidyut Chakraborty or there is also another good book Oxford Handbook on Indian politics i guess

^^all these are good but very tough to complete in limited time

Thank you man. I'm only appearing in 2021 so I have some time. I guess I'll go through these sources selectively. 

5.5k views
How were the papers guys??
4.5k views
Would it be fair to say that the relevance of balance of power is increasing in this multipolar world as exemplified by the formation of QUAD as a balancing force/power against a rising China?
4k views
@palindrome7 Introduction to Political Theory by OP Gauba.


4.3k views
For 2B, I personally also used Dhananjay Singh Yadav's notes. He has a lot of quotes for each of the basic topics. I think they would be helpful in an introduction or conclusion. His notes can be found here: Optional | English, Agastya (home.blog). Also for Paper 2 in general, I would highly recommend the MEA website. Especially the speeches section and Distinguished Lectures. 
4.7k views
For 2B, I personally also used Dhananjay Singh Yadav's notes. He has a lot of quotes for each of the basic topics. I think they would be helpful in an introduction or conclusion. His notes can be found here: Optional | English, Agastya (home.blog). Also for Paper 2 in general, I would highly recommend the MEA website. Especially the speeches section and Distinguished Lectures. 

Thank you. He does have some good quotes. 

But in MEA section, the lectures and speeches are from 2019 , are you referring to those?

Yeah the lectures are only till the end of 2019, but the speeches are frequently updated. 

3.2k views

Rewl1said


Had decided that would be spending June and July on optional . Make proper notes for all parts ( haven't done it yet) and join sr test series for  answer writing practice . Also , give time for essay and write one every fortnight.  (Coverage of 750 marks)

Now I'm confused after seeing AWFG 2.0 program of Forum . That would help in covering and note making of GS 2,3,4 . I would also be writing essay a fortnight. (Coverage of 1000 marks)


@AzadHindFauz @whatonly @sstarrr @dragon_rider  and others , would be very helpful if you can provide some insights and give advice .

For info : 

2 attempts 

2019 : Pre didn't clear 

2020: Pre cleared  ; mains didn't clear 

I think it depends on how good/bad you think you did on each paper. From what I've read and seen, I think the most important papers to focus on are the Optional, Ethics and Essay papers. I feel like if I can score extremely high in these (which means having to put in that much work for those papers) and average marks at the very least in GS 1, 2 and 3 then I should be fine. My reasoning is that it's difficult to outscore others on GS 1, 2, and 3 whereas I feel it's relatively easier to outscore the competition in ethics, essay and optional. Since you've written mains once, I'm assuming you have at least a basic framework of notes for the GS papers and if you don't have a complete set of notes for optional, I would suggest you focus on optional over GS. 


DISCLAIMER: I have NOT cleared prelims till now so take everything I say, not with just a pinch of salt, but with a whole bucketful. 

2.9k views

Also@whatonly and@AzadHindFauz , could you guys share a list of topics on which you prepared for the essay if you have such a list?

2.9k views

@Rewl1 I used to look at answer copies of Megha Arora and Trupti Dhodmise. Both had very different styles and got good marks (300+). I used to look at Megha Arora's copies, pick out questions from them to write, and compare with her answers to figure out exactly how to improve. I would suggest sticking to one or two people after looking at a few who have gotten good marks, depending on whose style you like, and then trying to see what you can take from them. 

Didn't really listen to any talks. I read articles by Megha Arora, Ananya Das, and Dhananjay Singh.

https://medium.com/firestarter

https://unravellingcse.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/political-science-preparation-by-ananya-das-air-16/

https://englishagastya.home.blog/

That's a great idea to take questions toppers have answered and comparing our answers with theirs. I had not thought of doing that. 

5.6k views

How to make crisp notes for psir.. I had made earlier and later ended up writing the whole thing which again has become bulky.. it's like everything seems important to me. Should I segregate things like - quotes of thinkers in one place, keywords in another, critics in one.. 


Please suggest 🙏

I would suggest mind maps with just the keywords, quotes and critics views etc. This is my mind map on Plato.


 



I plan on making these even shorter after maybe like two or three revisions. Also, these are missing a few other points like Plato and fascism, Karl Popper's criticism etc. and some quotes on Plato which I haven't updated to these yet (my laziness has nothing to do with this at all :P)

5k views

Rewl1said

@dragon_rider The mind maps look very neat.Is there an app /software for this?


This is Mindmup. It's a free online software. I switched to Miro though because you can integrate it into Notion which just makes it easier since all my notes are in Notion.

4.7k views

D503said

D503said

Jammusaid

» show previous quotes

I read somewhere regarding his book. He has written India is not ‘vishwa guru’ yet because world is much more realistic. A country's success is based on material power, hard power, economy, military strength, and ability to handle domestic affairs properly. Do you agree ?


By the way, Menons are in IFS for 3 generations now. Extraordinary !

he has also written that becoming vishwaguru is pointless if the people of the country goes hungry, sick, and poor. definitely it might satisfy the ego , but the goal should be welfare and transformation of lives of ordinary people. Further he argues that historically only those rising powers have grown into major powers who have managed to control their urge to flaunt power and built their power silently. He gives example of peloponesian war b/w sparta and athens, Wilhelm germany, japan in 1930's. By being assertive prematurely on global stage , a state attracts wrath of the status quoist powers. Even china followed a policy ofhide your ambitions and disguise your claws, and only after global financial crisis became assertive and ambitious on global stage.
But on the other hand there also arguments against this hiding strength argument. China was assertive right from the day zero, it went on to have a border war with india, a conflict with soviet in 60s, tiannanmen square , involvement in vietnam, korea et al


This reminded me of the funniest article headline that I've read recently

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/28/oh-god-not-the-peloponnesian-war-again/

paywall !!


Clear your cache memory and try again.

3.6k views

SR TS lost credibility in my eyes. I had joined the TS that they launched like a while back for 2021 Mains and I didn't like it. In the 1st exam the topics covered were Plato, Aristotle and Machiavelli and yet one of the question was about the Indus Water Treaty. I mean there was only a total of 8 questions so it wouldn't have been that hard to just double or triple check the questions are from the proper topic at the least. It just made me feel like they're not being diligent in their efforts. I could be completely wrong and they are indeed very diligent and this was just a random mistake. 


Also, I wanna point out that I didn't think their questions and model answers were bad at all. In fact, I think they're good to help us figure out a structure/framework for our answers and how to kind of connect a relatively vague question to something concrete in the syllabus.

4.5k views

Does anyone know of a good book that covers Eastern Philosophy? I'm looking for something similar to Story of Philosophy by Will Durant (as mentioned by@Villanelle) or A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.

3k views

D503said

Unlike lending from China—and even from IMF and World Bank—Indian lines of credit are demand-driven, consultative, transparent, andnonconditional- Harsh pant

As a rule goods and services forminimum 75%value of contracts covered under Exim loans must be sourced from India - finance ministry


Exim loans are given to companies and corporations dealing with imports and exports right? I think Harsh Pant was talking about loans given to foreign governments but to be really sure I would have to look at the article in which he says this to understand the context.

3.2k views
Has anyone answered "Examine the changing pattern of electoral behaviour in India" (2011, 30 marks)?

I would start by saying how the study of electoral behavior is a result of the growth of the behavioral and post-behavioral approaches in political science and how it's important to understand the political atmosphere of a country. 


Then I would mention Milan Vaishnav who pointed out the difficulty of studying EB in India due its size and diversity. Substantiate it with Kenneth Arrow's 'impossibility theorem.' 


Then I would mention the trend in EB like how individuals vote more based on the party or the PM or CM candidate as in a presidential system than on the MP and MLA candidate. I would point out how people vote differently at national and state level and how the public differentiates between national issues and local issues (supported by the post-poll survey conducted by Lokniti). Also could mention 'federalization' of electoral politics where national elections are also heavily shaped by state-level factors.


I would also point out how people seem to be voting for criminals or those with criminal cases pending against them leading to criminalization of politics (maybe quote Milan Vaishnav again since it's a 30 mark question).


You could also add that voter turnout seems to be increasing as seen in the 2019 LS elections.


This is all I have in my notes, but we should definitely add the role of caste and religion in voting behavior and how it's changed, if it has changed. If anyone has these points, please post it here.

2.8k views
@KropotkinSchmopotkin I don't have a direct quote, but he argues in his book 'When Crime Pays' that criminals have a higher chance of winning. According to him it's due to the inability of govt. to fulfill its basic responsibilities which leads to voters choosing strongmen or criminals. Also, elections are becoming more costly which leads political parties to look for wealthy candidates who are usually criminals. These are not his exact words though. It's what I got from reading the summary of the book from somewhere (can't remember where).

Also another point we could potentially add is how social media impacts electoral behavior though once again, I don't have notes on that.


2.7k views
@sstarrr You are right. This isn't the way I would have presented it in the answer. It would have been better to say that federalization of electoral politics happens but the recent post-poll survey by Lokniti shows a changing pattern where voters do differentiate between national and local issues. 

Also Milan Vaishnav backs up his claims with data in his book so I don't think we can entirely dismiss it. 


3.4k views

@dragon_rider @sstarrr I did a bit of reading up on it. Vaishnav does claim that there is a voter preference for criminals who can "get things done" in the context of weakening rule of law. However, there is also a counter-view by Abhijit Banerjee et al (2014)-

"Contrary to the voter preference hypothesis, voters presented with vignettes that randomly vary the attributes of competing legislative candidates for local, state, and national office become much less likely to express a preference for candidates who are alleged to be criminal or corrupt. Moreover, voters’ education status, ethnicity, and political knowledge are unrelated to their distaste for criminal and venal candidates. The results imply that the electoral performance of candidates who face serious allegations likely reflects factors other than voters’ preferences for patronage, such as limited information about candidate characteristics or the absence of credible alternative candidates with clean records."

This is great. I hadn't known Abhijit Bannerjee had given such a countering viewpoint.

3.4k views
@Amudhanadhi I would recommend spending this next month understanding the concepts and making notes of Section A of both papers, especially paper 1. In my opinion, your notes should be such that you don't have to refer to the parent material again. This way you can just revise these like a gazillion times after Prelims. Section B of paper 1 you will have some idea on due to studying polity and history and you should be able to finish the section relatively fast even post-Prelims. Section B of paper 2 is highly CA oriented and it also helps to have an understanding of the various terminologies and concepts used in IR which is in Section A of paper 2 before going through Section B of paper 2.

As for SR classes, I don't know. I haven't taken her classes so I don't know how good they are, but I have heard/read a lot of people say that it is quite slow paced and you don't have the luxury of time. And as for test series, I think it's important for you to understand all the concepts before writing test series, but do check the PYQs for each topic when you study them and make sure that you can answer them all using your notes.


3.2k views
Write your comment…