PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Representation & Participation
Critically examine the role of political parties in sustaining and stabilising democracies in the developing societies.
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
parties = bridge between State & citizenry → participation, representation, accountability survival of democracy turns on party institutionalisation, not mere presence
Body flow
Huntington: parties institutionalise mass participation = order → mobilisation outrunning institutions = disorder, party- less = coup-prone → Dahl (polyarchy): plurality bridges social/economic/ethnic groups, cuts marginalisation → Diamond: party competition = accountability = long-term stability
Counter-view
developing-world reality blunts these functions → Sandbrook: personalism over ideology + Webb: parties as personal/dynastic property → erodes accountability → Migdal (“strong societies, weak states”): clientelism /patronage stalls consolidation → Horowitz (“ethnic outbidding”): parties deepen polarisation instead of bridging cleavages
Conclusion routes
role genuine but conditional → not parties as such but institutionalised parties sustain democracy India holds democracy through party churn → institutionalisation the deciding factor; without it, parties destabilise
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
