PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Comparative Politics
Explain the Political-Sociological Approach in the field of comparative politics and discuss its limitations.
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
r politics read through society → Lipset’s inversion: society as the starting point, its effect on the state → this inversion = the founding claim e2 approach maps state-society relations → begins from society, not the state → frames its comparative-politics use
Body flow
| Marx (modern founder): society’s basic structure explains political power → caste-class ties drive governance → Weber widens it: bureaucracy + types of authority, Marx’s view too monocausal → strength in the developing world → caste, religion, informal groupings shape political behaviour
Counter-view
ounter-view the tilt toward society becomes its weakness → Huntington: sociological reductionism → state loses autonomy + correlation mistaken for causation → confined to society, blind to inter-state conflict
Conclusion routes
sion routes kr Skocpol: bring the state back in → society explains much of politics, not all R2 strength and limitation are one coin → the state must be restored for a complete account
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
