Comment on the decline of political parties and examine whether new social movements shall be alternative strategy for establishing link between government and society.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 parties aggregate interests, central to representative democracy → but link between government and society weakening
Route 2 representative democracy in worldwide decline (Rosenthal) → “post-representative” moment (Rosanvallon) → parties losing their government–society link
signs of party decline (turnout ↓, membership ↓, trust ↓, personalisation, social-media bypass) → India: dynastic + ethnic politics + economic-environmental complexity → traditional channels fall short → NSMs forge alternative link (shape opinion + policy agenda, capture government attention, advisory-committee inclusion) → Section 377 / LGBT movement fills the gap parties ignored → Kothari’s “non-party political process”
movements have not displaced parties → limits of direct democracy → parties stay the main agents of interest aggregation and government formation
Route 1 internet + career activists open popular space → movements supplement, not substitute, parties
Route 2 NSMs are a real but partial link → they complement parties in connecting government and society
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
Also asked on this head
Politics of Representation and Participation — 12 questions in the Vault.
- Of late, centrist and centre-left political parties have been facing setbacks while centre-right parties have been in ascendency the world over. Comment.
- Critically examine the role of political parties in sustaining and stabilising democracies in the developing societies.
- Discuss the major recent social movements related to the physical rights of women in various countries of the world.
How this is taught
The same flow snapshot, built for every head of the syllabus, with the answer written in class.
The first session of Foundation 2027 is published in full.
Six programmes across three levels.