PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Theories of the State
Comment on the post-colonial theory of the state in about 150 words.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
G9 post-decolonisation, sovereign but built on inherited colonial apparatus → Brar’s relabeling modern apparatus grafted onto a non-modern base → category defined by that mismatch
Body flow
common insight = apparatus—base mismatch → Riggs’s prismatic society (formalism, modern + traditional coexist) → Myrdal’s soft state (institutions can't enforce rules → blocks poverty alleviation) -. Alavi’s overdeveloped state (superstructure outgrows base → relative autonomy → military-bureaucratic oligarchy, Pakistan)
Counter-view
| thin as a unified state theory → Myrdal’s cultural determinism + Alavi freezing class at independence
Conclusion routes
R1 still explains why coercive, top-heavy institutions outlived colonialism best read as a colonial apparatus over a weak base, theorised from three angles
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
