{"id":3539,"date":"2026-08-11T22:11:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/notes\/political-economy-and-political-sociology-perspectives\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T02:57:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:27:40","slug":"political-economy-and-political-sociology-perspectives","status":"publish","type":"psir_note","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/notes\/political-economy-and-political-sociology-perspectives\/","title":{"rendered":"Political economy and political sociology perspectives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"n-wrap\">\n<div class=\"n-shell\">\n<div class=\"n-crumb\"><a href=\"\/psir\/psir-notes\/\">PSIR Notes<\/a><span class=\"sep\">\u203a<\/span><a href=\"\/psir\/psir-notes\/#ii-a\">II-A Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics<\/a><span class=\"sep\">\u203a<\/span><span>Political economy and political sociology perspectives<\/span><\/div>\n<header class=\"n-head\">\n<div class=\"n-eyebrow\">Paper I \u00b7 Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"n-title\">Political economy and political sociology perspectives<\/h1>\n<div class=\"n-syl\"><b>Syllabus \u00b7 Paper II-A \u00b7 1<\/b> \u2014 Comparative Politics : Nature and major approaches; <span class=\"cur\">Political economy and political sociology perspectives<\/span>; Limitations of the comparative method.<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"n-grid\">\n  <main class=\"n-body\"><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"political-economy-approach-meaning-and-the-two-strands\">Political Economy Approach \u2014 meaning and the two strands<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">What it studies<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-sch\">Karl Marx<\/span>: political economy is &#8220;an interdisciplinary study drawing upon economics, law and political science.&#8221; Oxford Handbook: &#8220;the study of economic policies of the state and its political and economic processes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Evolution: Kautilya&#8217;s <em>Arthashastra<\/em> \u2192 mercantilism \u2192 <span class=\"n-sch\">Adam Smith<\/span> (<em>Wealth of Nations<\/em>, 1776 \u2014 modern political economy begins) \u2192 <span class=\"n-sch\">David Ricardo<\/span> (comparative advantage) \u2192 <span class=\"n-sch\">Marx<\/span> (<em>Capital<\/em>; surplus value) \u2192 <span class=\"n-sch\">Keynes<\/span> (welfare) \u2192 <span class=\"n-sch\">Lenin<\/span> (<em>Imperialism<\/em>) \u2192 <span class=\"n-sch\">Hayek<\/span> and <span class=\"n-sch\">Friedman<\/span> (neoliberalism).<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">The fault line inside political economy<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"n-tw\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>LIBERAL<\/th>\n<th>MARXIST<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Private property &amp; markets; laissez-faire; the &#8220;invisible hand&#8221;; minimal state<\/td>\n<td>Class struggle; surplus value; historical materialism; the state as an instrument of the bourgeoisie<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Locke \u00b7 Smith \u00b7 Ricardo \u00b7 Malthus \u00b7 Hayek \u00b7 Friedman<\/td>\n<td>Marx \u00b7 Engels \u00b7 Lenin \u00b7 Frank \u00b7 Wallerstein \u00b7 Mandel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"political-economy-the-development-debate\">Political Economy \u2014 the development debate<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Modernisation theory<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Liberal political economy feeds modernisation; prominent post-WWII (the Marshall Plan). A traditional \u2192 modern dichotomy (particularism \/ ascription \u2192 universalism \/ achievement). Scholars: Weber, Parsons, Rostow, Apter, Lipset, Pye, Almond, Verba.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-tw\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Rostow \u2014 five stages<\/th>\n<th>Organski \u2014 four stages<\/th>\n<th>C. E. Black \u2014 phases<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Traditional society; preconditions for take-off; take-off; drive to maturity; high mass consumption<\/td>\n<td>Primitive unification; industrialisation; national welfare; abundance &amp; mass consumption<\/td>\n<td>Challenge of modernity; consolidation of leadership; transformation; integration of society<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Assumptions: homogenising, irreversible, progressive, lengthy. Critique: Eurocentric; a Cold-War motive (Rostow&#8217;s subtitle \u2014 &#8220;A Non-Communist Manifesto&#8221;); determinism.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Dependency theory<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Underdevelopment is produced by exploitative ties, not by backwardness. <span class=\"n-term\">Paul Baran<\/span> (wealth extraction); <span class=\"n-sch\">Andre Gunder Frank<\/span> (1967) \u2014 a <span class=\"n-term\">metropole\u2013satellite<\/span> chain, wealth flowing periphery \u2192 core; <span class=\"n-sch\">Walter Rodney<\/span> (1972); <span class=\"n-term\">Malcolm Caldwell<\/span> (1977). Critique: over-weights external factors; treats the periphery as homogenous; cannot explain peripheral success stories.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">World-systems analysis (Immanuel Wallerstein)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A single capitalist world-economy since the 16th c., built on a division of labour: <span class=\"n-em\">core<\/span> (strong states) \u2014 <span class=\"n-term\">semi-periphery<\/span> \u2014 <span class=\"n-term\">periphery<\/span> (raw-material exporters). Strong core states extract surplus; multilateral, not merely bilateral. Critique: system determinism; neglects agency; over-centres market over production.<\/p>\n<p><em>Recent turns: Christopher Chase-Dunn (the inter-state system); Andre Gunder Frank (a system older than the 16th c., with Asian origins); Janet Abu-Lughod (the medieval Middle East as centre; Europe peripheral).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Modes of production &amp; the state-centred school<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"n-lab\">Modes of production<\/span>: relations of production (slave\u2013master, serf\u2013lord, wage-labour\u2013capitalist); a <span class=\"n-term\">social formation<\/span> combines modes; capitalism restructures but does not erase pre-capitalist modes (<span class=\"n-term\">articulation<\/span>).<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"n-term\">State-centred<\/span> (Poulantzas, Miliband, Hamza Alavi, Pranab Bardhan, Issa Shivji): the <span class=\"n-term\">relative autonomy<\/span> of the state; the state as an arena of class struggle; Alavi&#8217;s <span class=\"n-term\">overdeveloped post-colonial state<\/span> (Pakistan, Bangladesh). Instrumentalist (Miliband) vs structuralist (Poulantzas).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Neoliberal approach<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Minimal state, free markets, privatisation; <span class=\"n-term\">Structural Adjustment Programmes<\/span> (World Bank, IMF); good governance as a development precondition. Critique: one-size-fits-all SAPs; inequality and social cost; prioritising market freedom may crowd out democracy.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"political-economy-significance-and-limits\">Political Economy \u2014 significance and limits<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"n-sch\">Harold Lasswell<\/span>&#8216;s &#8220;who gets what, when and how&#8221; makes the economics\u2013politics partnership unavoidable. Political economy reads state macro-policy, tariff structures and the domestic\u2013global interface; it is at once qualitative and quantitative, empirical and prescriptive, with a mathematical bent that yields more testable theory.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Three contributions in comparative politics (Schumpeter)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>(1) an analytical lens prioritising regularities and causal mechanisms; (2) insight into the corporation\u2013government interaction \u2014 why policy differs across autocracies and democracies; (3) how global economic integration alters government decisions. Schumpeter: &#8220;an exposition of a comprehensive set of economic politics on the strength of certain unifying normative principles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Limits: economic determinism; neglect of normative and constitutional questions; ideological colouring (e.g. Piketty); <\/em><em>Lane Kenworthy<\/em><em> \u2014 ignores historical, political and cultural context; the modes-of-production comparison takes a functional twist that erases human agency.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"n-pyq\"><span class=\"n-pyq-chip\">UPSC 2016 \u00b7 10m<\/span><span class=\"n-pyq-q\">Critically examine the Marxist aspect of political economy approach to the study of comparative politics.<\/span><a class=\"n-pyq-a\" href=\"\/psir\/psir-pyq\/critically-examine-the-marxist-aspect-of-political-economy-upsc-psir-2016-2701\/\">Answer<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"n-pyq\"><span class=\"n-pyq-chip\">UPSC 2021 \u00b7 10m<\/span><span class=\"n-pyq-q\">Discuss the political economy approach to the comparative analysis of politics.<\/span><a class=\"n-pyq-a\" href=\"\/psir\/psir-pyq\/discuss-the-political-economy-approach-to-the-comparative-upsc-psir-2021-2706\/\">Answer<\/a><\/div>\n<h3 id=\"political-sociology-approach-state-and-society\">Political Sociology Approach \u2014 state and society<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">What it is<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-lab\">A. K. Mukhopadhyay<\/span>: &#8220;a marriage of political science and sociology, wherein the child contains features of both disciplines, but is also different from its parents.&#8221; <span class=\"n-sch\">S. M. Lipset<\/span>: political science starts with the state and asks how it affects society; political sociology starts with society and asks how it affects the state.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"n-term\">Robert Dowse<\/span> and <span class=\"n-term\">John Hughes<\/span>: &#8220;the study of political behaviour within a sociological perspective or framework.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"n-term\">Michael Rush<\/span> and <span class=\"n-term\">Philip Althoff<\/span>: the linkages between social structure and political structure, social and political behaviour.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"n-lab\">N. J. Smelser<\/span>: the interrelationship between society and polity, social structures and political institutions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Origins: the mid-19th c., under the Industrial Revolution (Lipset and Runciman). <span class=\"n-sch\">Karl Marx<\/span> lays the foundation of modern political sociology \u2014 grasp the basic structure of society to grasp politics; caste\u2013class ties shape politics; the political superstructure rests on the economic base.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-tw\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Marxian<\/th>\n<th>Weberian<\/th>\n<th>Behaviouralist<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Marx \u2014 father of political sociology; the propertied class sets the agenda and wields power<\/td>\n<td>Weber \u2014 foundation of modern sociology; faults Marx as monocausal; a middle class rises rather than two-class polarisation<\/td>\n<td>Scientific methods \u2014 quantification, statistics, regression, surveys, field studies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Politics understood through the structure of society<\/td>\n<td>Three legitimate authority types: traditional, rational-legal, charismatic<\/td>\n<td>\u2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Early critics of Marxism turned to elites, parties and voting: <span class=\"n-sch\">Vilfredo Pareto<\/span> (circulation of elites), <span class=\"n-sch\">Gaetano Mosca<\/span> (the ruling class), <span class=\"n-sch\">Robert Michels<\/span> (the &#8220;iron law of oligarchy&#8221;), <span class=\"n-sch\">Max Weber<\/span> (bureaucracy, authority). Within Marxism: instrumentalist (Miliband), structuralist \/ relative-autonomy (Poulantzas), and <span class=\"n-sch\">Gramsci<\/span>&#8216;s &#8220;integral state.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-pyq\"><span class=\"n-pyq-chip\">UPSC 2017 \u00b7 10m<\/span><span class=\"n-pyq-q\">Explain the Political-Sociological Approach in the field of comparative politics and discuss its limitations.<\/span><a class=\"n-pyq-a\" href=\"\/psir\/psir-pyq\/explain-the-political-sociological-approach-in-the-field-of-upsc-psir-2017-2702\/\">Answer<\/a><\/div>\n<h3 id=\"political-sociology-india-significance-and-the-return-of-the\">Political Sociology \u2014 India, significance and the return of the state<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Indian scholarship<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-sch\">Rajni Kothari<\/span> (caste and the party system), <span class=\"n-sch\">Andre Beteille<\/span> (social structure, class, inequality), <span class=\"n-sch\">Paul Brass<\/span> (parties), <span class=\"n-sch\">Yogendra Yadav<\/span> (OBC politics), <span class=\"n-sch\">Christophe Jaffrelot<\/span> (caste and religion).<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-lab\">Significance<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Best fit for the developing world, where social structure drives politics; <span class=\"n-sch\">Maurice Duverger<\/span> \u2014 the approach seeks the political within the wider social, affirming the unity of the sciences; empirical rather than philosophical; explains how castes, religions, linguistic groups and social movements wield power.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Criticism \u2014 social reductionism<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Privileging society over the state disperses the state&#8217;s autonomous character. <span class=\"n-sch\">Samuel P. Huntington<\/span>: the &#8220;social stratification&#8221; reading of politics is a form of &#8220;sociological reductionism&#8221; that ignores institutions and culture. Behaviouralism deepened the decline by sidelining the state.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Bringing the state back in<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-sch\">Theda Skocpol<\/span>: a return to the state as an entity apart from social forces, with its own interests and capacities; <span class=\"n-term\">Guillermo O&#8217;Donnell<\/span>&#8216;s bureaucratic-authoritarian regimes depoliticised society to drive modernisation. This fed <span class=\"n-term\">neo-institutionalism<\/span> (March and Olsen, <em>Bringing Institutions Back<\/em>, 1985): institutions as norms and practices, not just structures.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Contemporary political sociology<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Close to &#8220;cultural politics&#8221; \u2014 what events mean to those who act on them. <span class=\"n-sch\">Lipset<\/span> and <span class=\"n-sch\">Rokkan<\/span> (1967): historical shocks (the Reformation, national revolutions, industrialisation) created durable <span class=\"n-term\">cleavages<\/span> that froze European party systems. <span class=\"n-sch\">Almond<\/span> and <span class=\"n-sch\">Verba<\/span> (1965): political culture is the distribution of individual attitudes; short-run stability needs a compatible culture.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-next\"><a href=\"\/psir\/notes\/comparative-politics-nature-and-major-approaches\/\"><em>Previous<\/em><b>Comparative Politics: nature and major approaches<\/b><\/a><a class=\"r\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/limitations-of-the-comparative-method\/\"><em>Next<\/em><b>Limitations of the comparative method<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/main><\/p>\n<aside class=\"n-rail\">\n<h4>On this page<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"#political-economy-approach-meaning-and-the-two-strands\">Political Economy Approach \u2014 meaning and the two strands<\/a><a href=\"#political-economy-the-development-debate\">Political Economy \u2014 the development debate<\/a><a href=\"#political-economy-significance-and-limits\">Political Economy \u2014 significance and limits<\/a><a href=\"#political-sociology-approach-state-and-society\">Political Sociology Approach \u2014 state and society<\/a><a href=\"#political-sociology-india-significance-and-the-return-of-the\">Political Sociology \u2014 India, significance and the return of the state<\/a><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Political economy and political sociology perspectives for the UPSC PSIR optional \u2014 PSIR Notes \u203a II-A Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics \u203a Political economy <\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"fx_note_key":"II-A.1.2","fx_note_sec":"II-A","fx_note_point":"1","fx_note_desc":"Political economy and political sociology perspectives for the UPSC PSIR optional \u2014 PSIR Notes \u203a II-A Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics \u203a Political economy ","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3539","psir_note","type-psir_note","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_note\/3539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/psir_note"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_note\/3539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3826,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_note\/3539\/revisions\/3826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}