Comparative Politics Lyst9541

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Index
Introduction to Comparative Politics 3

Structural-functionalism and Political Development 6
Political Culture Approach 7
Political Sociology Approach 14
Institutionalism and Neo-Institutionalism 20
Political Decay 23
Development Trap 25
Characteristics and Changing Nature of State 27
Welfare State and Capitalist Society 29
Neo –liberalism and Capitalist Society 31
Pluralist theory 32
Wallerstein’s World System Approach 43
Nation & Nationalism 46
Bureaucracy 51
Electoral Reforms 53
Political Party & party System 56
Party System in Developed World 62
Coalition & Democracy 64
Pressure Groups 65
Social Movements 76
What is Globalisation 90
Globalisation and developed world- Impact and Response 94
Globalisation and Developing World- Impact and Responses 97
Does Economic Globalisation bring prosperity for all? 101
Covid 19 and future of Globalisation 111
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Introduction to Comparative Politics

• Comparative politics is one of the three main subfields of political science, others including
political theory and international relations.
• Politics is considered the human activity for making public authoritative decisions. It is considered
with:
o Which decisions are made?
o How decisions are made?
o Who makes or influences decisions?
• Comparative politics while dealing with these questions looks at the interactions within and across
the political systems. It is also empirical and value-neutral, more concerned about studying how
things are done.
• Comparing and contrasting are the main features of the discipline. The tradition of comparison
dates back to ancient times with Aristotle’s comparison of 18 constitutions of Greek city-states.
• Three traditions of Comparative Politics:
o Study of single countries
o Methodological studies regarding how comparative studies should be carried out.
o Analytical tradition of combining empirical substance and method.
• Main functions of comparative politics:
o Comparative politics describes the similarities and differences and establishes

classifications and typologies.
o It seeks to go beyond description to explain the similarities and differences- formulate

hypothesis and use empirical data to test the same to draw generalisations and build
theories.
o Comparative Politics aims to formulate predictions.
• Levels of analysis (What is compared?)
o National political systems
o Sub/ Non-national political systems (regional or supranational)
o Types of political systems (qualitative comparison- democratic vs authoritarian)
o Single elements of political system (structures of parliament, electoral laws etc.)
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Changes in the Political System
• Prior to the Second World War, Comparative Politics witnessed behavioural revolution:
What is Political System?

• Inspired by Parson’s abstraction of social systems, the biological system and cybernetics, David
Easton and Karl Deutsch developed system analysis in political science. Easton in in 1965
published A Framework for Political Analysis and A Systems Analysis for Political Life. Easton’s
input-output analysis is also known as the ‘flow model’. It can be regarded as a form of
functionalist analysis. ‘System’ is the broad unit of his analysis.

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• Self-regulatory system:
o Systemic persistence;
o Intermeshed with inter and intra systems;
o Open System- Interaction between the environment and system;
o Inter-linked and in equilibrium.
• The systems’ approach of Political Science, characterised by the Political System theory given by
David Easton laid foundations for the formulation of ‘grand theories.’ These all-encompassing
theories were crucial as:
o Took into consideration the expanding geographical concerns.
o Took into consideration informal actors.

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Structural-functionalism and Political Development

• Structural-functionalism tried to combat some of the criticisms levelled against Systems approach.
It tried to chart political development by the model given. Gabriel Almond’s model is regarded as
the predominant one.
• SF tries to identify the necessary functions of a political system and then to compare the manner in
which these functions were performed.
• Political system is a “system of interaction found in all independent societies, which performs the
function of integration and adaptation by means of employment or threat of employment of more
or less legitimate physical compulsion.”
• Features of Political system:
o Universality of Political Structures.
o Universality of Political functions.
o Multi-functionality of political structure.
o Culturally mixed character.

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Political Culture Approach

• According to Lucian Pye, Political culture describes the overall pattern in society of beliefs,
attitudes and values towards the political system, or ‘the sum of the fundamental values,
sentiments and knowledge that give form and substance to political processes.
• At the same time, one must bear certain things in mind:
o First, almost every country – except perhaps the very smallest – will contain multiple
culturally distinctive social groups.
o Second, we should remember that cultures do not always coincide exactly with countries;
most religions, ethnic groups, and civilizations span national borders.
o Third, we must acknowledge that political culture can change over time.
o Lastly it is important to not reduce political culture to a stereotyped ‘national character’.
Civic Culture
• The Civic Culture is the classic 1963 study by Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba. Their
investigation was the first systematic study of political culture, and – in seeking to identify the
culture within which a liberal democracy is most likely to develop and consolidate – became a
political science equivalent of Weber’s attempt (1905) to discover the cultural source of modern
capitalism.
• Where Weber located the spirit of capitalism in protestant values, Almond and Verba found the
source of stable democracy in what they called a civic culture. Almond and Verba have developed
certain ideal types of political cultures existing in various political systems Based on surveys
conducted in the United States, Britain, West Germany, Italy, and Mexico.
The kinds of political cultures include

• Parochial political culture: It denotes the attitude of the people towards the political system where
people are not very much connected with the system. They feel themselves to be at the margins or
periphery. Here, citizens are only indistinctly aware of the existence of central government. e.g.
Tribes living in Andaman have a very peripheral position with respect to what goes in the Indian
political system. Parochial political culture can be explained through input-output model. When
people neither influence input nor influence output, their culture is called as parochial.
• Subject political culture: Herein citizens see themselves not as participants in the political process
but as subjects of the government. It means they are not in a position to determine what political
system should do; however, they matter in terms of the implementation of policies at the output
level.

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• Participant political culture: In a participant political culture, citizens believe both that they can
contribute to the system and that they are affected by it. It means they have active participation in
the formulation of the laws and are not just at the receiving end of the political system. E.g. the
culture in most western democracies like France, Switzerland, Scandinavian countries.
• Civic Culture: Civic culture is considered to be most conducive for democracy. Civic culture is a
combination of Participant culture, Subject political culture and Parochial political culture.
According to the idea of civic culture, excessive participant culture is not good. Excessive
participation may convert democracy into mobocracy. The best scenario for democracy is when
majority has participant culture, but some sections also have the subject and parochial culture. In
Almond and Verba’s study, Britain and, to a lesser extent, the United States came closest to this
ideal.
Political Trust and Social Capital

• A particular theme examined by Almond and Verba: political trust, has grown very important. It
refers to the belief that rulers are generally well intentioned and effective in serving the
interests of the governed.
• Political trust indicates diffuse support for the regime, facilitating sound governance, while
distrust can lead to a lack of compliance with government in such areas as tax collection.
• An important concept related to political trust is social capital, which refers to the social networks
of which people are members (consciously or unconsciously) and the inclinations that they have
as members of these networks to contribute and also to draw from others.
• Robert Putnam argued that civic community, based on high levels of political interest, social
equality, interpersonal trust, and voluntary association, leads to higher probabilities of effective
governance and democracy. Putnam in Bowling Alone surveys the decline of social capital in the
United States since 1950. He argues that this undermines the active civic engagement which a
strong democracy requires from its citizens.
• Post-Materialism: Developed by the American social scientist Ronald Inglehart, it means a set of
values emphasizing self-expression and the quality of life over materialist values such as economic
growth and physical security especially in post-industrial economies. They include a commitment
to self-expression, human diversity, individual liberty, and autonomy.
• Political Generations: Some of the earliest applications of political culture were criticized for being
too static, leading later researchers to look instead at changes in political culture. The concept of
political generations proved useful, suggesting as it does that each generation has the potential to
develop a perspective on politics which distinguishes it both from the one before and the one after.

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Political Culture in developing world
• Attempting to understand the phenomena of military intervention in the politics of developing
countries, Samuel E Finer came to relate civil-military relations with political culture. In his
analysis, there are four levels of political culture:
o Mature Political Culture: In this type of political culture, there is widespread public
approval of the procedure for transfer of power; a belief that the persons in power have
the right to govern and issue orders; the people are attached to the political institutions and
there is a well mobilized public opinion.
o Developed Political Culture: In this type of political culture, the civil institutions are
highly developed and the public is well organized into powerful groups but from time to
time there arises a dispute on the questions of who and what should constitute the
sovereign authority and how power should be transferred.
o Low Political Culture: At this level of political culture, the political system is weak and
narrowly organized; there is a lack of consensus on the nature of the political system and
the procedures and the public attachment to the political system is fragile.
o Minimal Political Culture: At this low level of political culture, articulate public opinion
does not exist in the political system and the government can easily ignore public opinion;
political cultures are decided by force or the threat of force. Finer argued that developing
countries with weak legitimacy are prone to experience coup d etat or extreme forms of
military intervention.
Political Culture at global level

• Political culture is not only a national or a local phenomenon, but can also be understood at the
global level. A key example of global-scale analysis is offered by Samuel Huntington in his ‘The
Clash of Civilizations’.
• He argues that the end of Cold War did not mean the end of cultural divisions, he said. Since such
groupings are supranational, Huntington claimed that political culture had escaped its national
boundaries to embrace wider identities.
• Huntington saw around 8 or 9 of them in all: Western, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Slavic–
Orthodox, Latin American, Chinese/Sinic, and (possibly) African.
• He suggested that, as globalization proceeded, friction and conflict would intensify, reversing the
standard ‘McWorld’ thesis given by Barber, of a world converging on American norms.

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Emergence of Universal Western civilisation and reactions?
Huntington’s explanation regarding reasons for clash
• Fundamental Differences among the civilizations are basic and product of centuries and
foundations of the different civilizations, meaning they will not be gone soon.
• As a result of globalisation, interactions across the world and nations are increasing, which
intensify the “civilization consciousness” and awareness of differences between the civilizations
and the commonalities within civilizations.
• Due to economic modernization and the social change, local identities of people have been
replaced by religion which provides a basis for the identity and the commitment that transcends
national boundaries and unites civilizations.

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• The growth of civilization-consciousness is enhanced by
dual role of the West. On one hand, the West is at a peak of
power. At the same time, the return-to-the-roots
phenomenon is occurring among the non-Western
civilizations.
• The cultural characteristics and differences are less

mutable and less easily compromised and resolved than the
political and economic ones.
• The economic regionalism is increasing and the successful

economic regionalism will reinforce the civilization-
consciousness.
Criticism of Huntington’s approach

• According to Paul Musgrave, the Clash has not proven to be the useful or accurate guide for
understanding the world.”
• Amartya Sen argues that, the diversity is a feature of the most cultures in the world. Western
civilization is the no exception.
• Paul Berman in his 2003 book Terror and Liberalism, argues that distinct cultural boundaries do
not exist in present day when the considering relationships such as that between the United States
and Saudi Arabia.
• According to Paul Berman, conflict arises because of the philosophical beliefs various groups share,
regardless of the cultural or religious identity.
• Edward Said argues that the Huntington’s categorization of world’s fixed “civilizations” omits the
dynamic interdependency and the interaction of culture.
• Noam Chomsky has criticized the concept of clash of civilizations as just being a new justification
for the United States to carry out atrocities.
Criticism of Political Culture Approach

• One of the important criticisms against the political culture approach is that it cannot be described
as a very precise variable for presenting a morphological study of the modern political system. The
approach cannot be taken as a correct barometer of individual behaviour because of the very
distinguishing and varied nature of the same.
• Lucian Pye criticizes this approach by stating that in no society there is a fundamental distinction
between the culture of the rulers and that of the masses. Therefore, any attempt to distinguish
them may not bring any productive result.

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• Others argue that the approach is ambiguous. The political culture is itself a subsystem of the
culture in general. In fact, the political culture approach is a by-product of modernization and
development theories. It is not certain whether they regard it independent variable or dependent
variable, a cause or an effect. As such, the whole perspective happens to become conservative,
static and anachronistic.
• On the other hand, some others question the very assumption of the approach that a system of
government continues because it is in tune with a country’s political culture. Many descriptions
of a political culture are often little more than an exercise in stereotyping which invariably ignores
diversity within the country concerned.
• In some cases, descriptions of political culture tend to be static as well as simplistic, lacking
sensitivity to how a culture continually evolves in response to political experiences. The approach
is not progressive but reactionary in character.

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Political Sociology Approach

• Political sociology approach is the examination of the links between politics and society, between
social structures and political structures, and between social behaviour and political behaviour.
• According to Duverger, political sociology is the science of power, of government, of authority of

command, in all human societies.
• Political sociology may be viewed as one of the oldest approaches. Philosophers like Plato,
Aristotle, Cicero, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas are representatives of the classical period
of political sociology. Aristotle is regarded as the father of political sociology and his theory of
revolution is of great significance in this regard.
• Machiavelli’s analysis of the conditions suitable for the Prince as well as analysis of societies fit to
be republics may also be seen as a part of political sociology approach.
• Karl Marx may be considered the father of modern political sociology approach. Marx and Engels’
political sociology was rooted in the theory of political action called praxis whereby "true" human
consciousness and will were united in social revolution.
• Marxism is a prime example of an approach to politics which located the primary source of
political behaviour in sociological factors, i.e., level of technological development, relations of
production and class structure. State was merely seen as an outcome of class dominance.
• Max Weber’s analysis of authority and legitimacy as well as the work of scholars of elitist power-
Mosca, Pareto and Michels, and pluralists like Dahl contributed to the development of the
political sociology approach.
• The four main areas of study in contemporary political sociology approach are:
o The socio-political formation of modern state.
o How social inequality between different groups i.e. caste, class, religion etc. influences
politics?
o How public opinion, ideologies, political parties, pressure groups, social movements and
trends outside formal political institutions affect formal politics?
o Power relationships within and between social groups i.e. families, bureaucracy, media etc.

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• Some of the prominent works and the scholars who have used political sociology in Indian
context are:
o Rajni Kothari- ‘Politicisation of caste’;
o Andre Beteille – who has studied the role of caste;
o Paul Brass – studied the role of religion;
o Christophe Jaffrelot – studied role of RSS;
o Yogendra Yadav – analysis India’s electoral behaviour.
Criticism of Political Sociology Approach

• While the approach is considered relevant for comparing various political systems, this hybrid
model has attracted greater enthusiasm from sociologists rather than political scientists.
• Political sociology suffers from the factor of over-emphasis on society. Many critics point to the
prominent role played by the state especially in third world countries in transforming their
societies.
• It also undermines the role institutions play in politics giving emphasis to social factors instead.
It is also more analytical in nature. Thus, it lacks the utility in prescribing solution to resolve the
crisis in governance.
• It tends to ignore role economy play in politics. This has led to the separate development of
political economy approach in comparative politics.
Political Economy Approach

• Political economy is a very old subject of intellectual inquiry but a relatively young academic
discipline. The writings of the Scottish economist Sir James Steuart- Principles of Political
Economy (1767) is considered the first systematic work in English on economics.
• Political economy emerged as a distinct field of study in the mid-18th century, largely as a reaction
to mercantilism, with the works of Scottish philosophers Adam Smith and David Hume.
• They took a secular approach, refusing to explain the distribution of wealth and power in terms of
God’s will. Indeed, Smith’s landmark work—An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth
of Nations provided the first comprehensive system of political economy.
• Smith’s work led to to the founding of the classical school which also includes scholars like
Ricardo (comparative advantage) and Malthus (Maltusian trap).
• This was followed by the utilitarian school of thought that included scholars like Jeremy Bentham,
James Mill and John Stuart Mill. The most crucial of schools in political economy is Marxist,
attributed to the works of Karl Marx.

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• Marx was critical of Smith’s classical approach of the ‘invisible hand’. Instead, he proposed a
class-based analysis of political economy that culminated in his massive treatise Das Kapital.
• Thus, political economy approach came to be dominated by two schools- liberal and Marxist.
However, a third contender emerged in 1930’s in the form of welfarism developed out of the
work of Keynes.
• The development of Keynesianism brought about a gradual shift in the meaning of liberalism,
from a doctrine calling for a relatively passive state and an economy guided by the “invisible
hand” of the market to the view that the state should actively intervene in the economy in order
to generate growth and sustain employment levels.
• In the 1970’s, however, many western countries experienced “stagflation,” or simultaneous high
unemployment and inflation, a phenomenon that contradicted Keynes’s view. The result was a
revival of classical liberalism, also known as “neoliberalism,” supported by scholars like Hayek,
Nozick and Friedman.
• At the same time welfarists like Amartya Sen, Jean Dreze, Joseph Stiglitz questioned the
neoliberal approach. Another school to have gained prominence especially in international and
comparative politics is neo- Marxist led by scholars like A.G. Frank, Wallerstein and Sameer
Amin.
• There are also some other important schools. Rational-choice theorists, for example, analyze
individual behaviour and even the policies of states in terms of maximizing benefits and
minimizing costs, and public-choice theorists focus on how policy choices are shaped or
constrained by incentives built into the routines of public and private organizations.
5 Perspectives of Political Economy Approach

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An example of political economy approach- ‘Resource Curse’
• Resource curse (Auty, Collier and Bannon), or the ‘paradox of
plenty’ is a phenomenon by which a state that is well endowed in a
particular natural resource, or a limited selection of resources,
experiences lower economic growth thanks to unbalanced policy,
extensive corruption, and internal conflict.
The policy element of the ‘curse’ stems from four main factors
• Because these resources are usually relatively easy to exploit and can bring quick and often
profitable returns, a state will focus its development efforts almost entirely in that sector, investing
little in other sectors. This is the so-called ‘Dutch disease’, named for the effects of the discovery
of natural gas in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands in the 1970s (Humphreys). It will
thereby have an imbalanced economy and will become dependent on a product whose value may
be held hostage to fluctuations in its price on the international market.
• When a government can raise adequate revenue from simply taxing a major natural resource, it
lacks incentive to improve economic performance by developing the skills of its people, thus
damaging growth over the long run.
• The profits that come from these commodities can encourage theft and corruption, ensuring that
they find their way into the bank accounts of the rich and powerful rather than being reinvested
back into the economy.
• The effect of the curse is to encourage internal conflict, when poorer regions of the country find
that they are not benefitting equally from the profits of resources found in other parts of the
country. In the most extreme cases, the outcome can be violence and civil war.

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Resource curse in India?
• Not just between countries, but even regions within countries may be victims of resource curse.
• Anurag Banerjee and Nilanjan Banik in their study point to how some of the most under-
developed regions in India have abundance of minerals, especially iron ore, bauxite, mica and coal.
• Profit maximization by mining companies, corruption by government and states and failure to
enforce progressive laws PESA, FRA etc often led to lack of rehabilitation and compensation for
indigenous and tribal populations leading to unrests.
Rentier State
• Rent-seeking is related to the phenomenon of the rentier state. This label applies to countries that
earn most of their revenue from exporting a natural resource or leasing natural resources to
foreign companies.
• The phenomenon of the rentier state is one of the explanations for the lack of democracy in many
states rich in key resources such as oil.
• Most of the major Middle Eastern oil states – including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States –
have at various times earned the label rentier state. This has applied most obviously at times when
the global price of oil has been high, though, and the long-term decline in the place of oil in the
world economy may be having important implications for Saudi Arabia, among others.
• The long-term result, suggests Seznec, might be that Saudi Arabia’s political economy moves
away from being ‘the epitome of a rentier state’ and instead begins to resemble those of more
advanced industrial democracies.
Criticism of Political Economy Approach

• While Political economy approach (PEA) is considered a balance between normative and scientific
rigor, there are certain criticisms as well:
• First, there are serious conceptual gaps within PEA tools and studies with their focus on
mathematical tools and modelling. More specifically, most PEA tools seriously underplay the role
of ideas and the complexity of power.

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• PEA has also been criticised on grounds that it involves plenty of economics, but not much in the
way of politics. Hudson and Leftwich (2014) find that most PEA relies too much on economic
assumptions and is really the “economics of politics”, not political economy at all.
• Importantly, PEA leaves out social and cultural factors which play a critical role in shaping
politics and structures of power. Thus, a more holistic approach is required.
Changes after 1967

• Return of State:
o The shift of substantial focus consists of a return to the state and its institutions by scholars
like Theda Skocpol. In recent decades, there has been a re-establishment of the centrality of
institutions more broadly defined as sets of rules, procedures, and social norms with neo-
institutionalism.
• Mid-range theories:
o Rather than general universalistic theories, mid-range theories with a return of attention to
varying historical structures, cultural elements, and geographic location, in which the
specific context plays a central role.
• Case-oriented analysis:
o This narrowing of scope also entailed a methodological change. It led to the development of
methods based on few cases against the problem of ‘few cases, many variables’ (Lijphart).
It provides the tool for analysing rigorously phenomena of which only few instances occur
historically.
• Rational Choice Theory:
o At the end of the 1980s, another change took place in comparative politics, strengthening
further the place of institutions. It was the change given by the increasing influence of
rational choice theory in comparative politics inspired by the development in economics.
Based on idea that actors are rational, able to order alternative options from most to least
preferred and then, through their choice, seek the maximization of their preferences.

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Institutionalism and Neo-Institutionalism

Institutionalism one of the oldest approaches of comparative politics.
What are institutions?

• For March and Olsen (2011), an institution is defined as follows: “a relatively enduring collection
of rules and organized practices, embedded in structures of meaning and resources that are
relatively invariant in the face of turnover of individuals and relatively resilient to the
idiosyncratic preferences and expectations of individuals and changing external circumstances.”
• Perhaps the oldest comparative study of governments was made by Aristotle who studied
constitutions and practices in Greek city-states. Contrasting them with politics in the so called
'barbarian' states, Aristotle made a typology of governments distinguishing between monarchies,
oligarchies and democracy and between these 'ideal' governments and their 'perverted' forms.
• With Machiavelli (The Prince) in the sixteenth century and Montesquieu (The Spirit of Laws) in the
middle of the eighteenth century, the emphasis on empirical details and facts about existing state of
affairs came to be established.
• It was, however, Bryce, Lowell and Ostrogorski, who in the last quarter of the nineteenth century,
made important contributions to comparative study of institutions and by implication to the
evolution of comparative governments as a distinct branch of study. Assessing their contributions
Jean Blondel asserts that Bryce and Lowell were in fact the true founders of comparative
governments.
o In Modern Democracies, Bryce focusses on the theory of democracy and examined the
working of the legislatures and their decline.
o Lowell's works Governments and Parties in Continental Europe and Public Opinion and
Popular Government where he undertakes separate studies of France, Germany,
Switzerland etc. and a comparative study of referendums and its impacts respectively were
equally important.
o Similarly, Ostrogorski's study Democracy and the Organisation of Political Parties which
aimed to test the hypothesis, so to speak, of the 'democratic' or 'oligarchical' character of
political parties was a pioneering work of the time.
• Institutionalism briefly fell out of favour in the 1960s as the behavioural movement emerged. In his
work The Political System , David Easton made a strong attack against Bryce's approach calling it
'mere factualism'. This approach, alleged Easton, had influenced American Political Science, in the
direction of what he called 'hyper-factualism.

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• The approach was criticized:
o as given to speculation;
o as largely prescriptive and normative;
o concerned only with irregularities and regularities without looking for relationships;
o configurative and non-comparative focusing on individual countries;
o ethnocentric as it concentrated on western European 'democracies';
o descriptive;
o historical without being analytical
o contributors within this framework were so absorbed with the study of institutions that
differences in cultural settings and ideological frameworks were completely ignored;
o methodologically they were accused as being partial incomplete and theoretically, it was
said they missed the substance of political life.
• However, with the coming in of post behaviouralism, neo-institutionalism emerged with the
following characteristics.
• The approach stressed the importance of state and its institutional structures. (P. Evans, T.Skocpol-
Bringing the State Back In) Without providing an overarching framework within which the
institutions may be said to function (as in structural-functional approach), it focused instead on
the manner in which the institutions interrelate.
• While refraining from making overarching frameworks, the approach did not, avoid making
generalized conclusions. The preoccupation with the collection of facts, also did not diminish. At
the same time, institutional approach, was careful
o to 'draw conclusions only after careful fact-finding efforts have taken place' and,
o to make a prudent use of induction so that one 'kept close to when generalising’
o the thrust of the approach, has 'middle-range analysis' where facts about specific cover a
broader area offering greater scope for however, analysed without offering inductive
models.
• Institutions are rarely static for very long. In fact, they are constantly changing in response to new
circumstances, and are frequently subject to a process of institutionalization.
• This begins following their creation, as they develop rules and procedures, build internal
complexity, entrench their position, are clearly distinguished from their environment, and come to
be accepted by external actors as part of the governing apparatus. It continues, though, as they
evolve in response to pressures for change, as well as new needs and opportunities.

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• We should also remember that institutions do not tell us the whole story about a political
system, because they rarely act independently of social forces. In many authoritarian states, for
example, the president is the presidency, and the entire superstructure of government is a facade
behind which personal networks and exchanges continue to drive politics.

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Political Decay
• In the article, “Political development and political decay,”
Samuel Huntington explores the conflict between political
mobilization and institutionalization and the importance of
institutional development concerning democratization.
• In much of the developing world, political participation is

growing much more rapidly than formal political
institutions. Huntington states that it is important to define
political development as the institutionalization of political
organizations and procedures.
• Samuel Huntington also looks at the relationship between political institutions and public interests.
A society with weak political institutions lacks the ability to curb the excesses of personal and
parochial desires. The capacity to create political institutions is the capacity to create and follow
public interests.
• Huntington draws up certain variables with regard to understanding institutionalization as they

move across traditional, transitional, or modern societies. These are:
o Adaptability- Rigidity
o Complexity- Simplicity
o Autonomy- Subordination
o Coherence- Disunity
• Under the institutional model, political decay can be

observed as a decrease in competence and credibility and
establishment of institutional corruption over a period of
time.
• Samuel P. Huntington suggests that certain social

problems like political disturbances, military problems
and even prevalence of bribery are caused by literacy
rates, economic growth and political engagement rates
that give rise to a social mobility developing faster than
political institutionalization.

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• Francis Fukuyama in his 2014 book, ‘Political Order and Political Decay’ attempts to understand
why state and institutions fail. The book is about
"getting to Denmark," in other words creating stable,
peaceful, prosperous, inclusive, and honest societies.
• Fukuyama in contexts of states like China talks of

clientelism which is politics based on patron–client
relationships. A powerful figure (the patron)
provides protection to lower-status clients in return
for their unqualified allegiance and support.
• Fukuyama develops the idea of the development of the three components of a modern political
order, which are:
o State building
o Rule of law
o Accountable government
• For Fukuyama, a successful modern liberal democracy

balances all three components to achieve stability.
Fukuyama points to the causes of political decay as being:
• Institutional rigidity: Vetocracy or the existence of too many

veto players which makes political decision-making very
difficult.
• Repatrimonization: Judicialization of the legislative

function, adversarial legalism and gift exchange.

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Development trap
• W.F. Riggs is one of the greatest authorities on political development. According to him, increased
structural differentiation is the key variable of political development. He is mainly a structuralist,
and maintains that governmental or political structure can be borrowed or transferred independent
of cultural considerations.
• He regards governmental institutions and practices as ‘technology’. It can be transplanted

anywhere across political systems and political cultures. Riggs talks of three variables that govern
the development of a political system which are:
o Performance level,
o Level of differentiation, and
o Degree of ‘integration’, absorption.
• According to Riggs whenever there is mismatch between the rate of development among the three
parameters, it leads to ‘development trap’.
Political Communication Approach

• Political communication refers to the flow of information and the exchange of messages among
political actors, citizens, and the media. All three participants contribute to the creation of political
public spheres.
• In the past, political communication scholarship focused attention somewhat narrowly on publicly
visible forms of mass communication featuring organized actors who addressed core political
issues in the setting of liberal democratic nation-states.
• Today, political communication is, in many ways, characterized by a mix of public and
personalized communication, mass media and social media, and established and non-established
communicators.
• The functioning of today’s political communication is characterized by two parallel modes of

operation: the logic of traditional, top-down oriented mass communication, and the decentralized,
participative interactive logic of Internet communication- ‘hybrid media systems’.

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Media- Politics relationship

• Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) study, Comparing Media Systems—Three Models of Media and
Politics very important in this regard.
• Drawing on Lijphart (1999), it assumes that a political system’s influence on the news media
depends on five factors:
o the role of the state and regulation in media policy;
o the presence of either a majoritarian or a consensus government;
o the pattern of interest mediation with respect to the form of pluralism;
o the type of political authority;
o and the political history regarding democratization
• Based on research in sixteen European and two North American countries, their study offers a
typology of three media system types—a North Atlantic liberal model, a North-West European
democratic corporatist model, and a Southern European polarized pluralist model.

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• Since then much more research in the area which has moved beyond the western focus, included
measurable quantitative indicators and modern information technologies.
• The Global World of Journalism Study (2019) found 4 types of journalism cultures varying as per
political, social-economic and cultural contexts:
o Monitorial journalism culture persists in Western European liberal countries, US, Australia,
Japan in which distance between news workers and politicians guide reporting.
o Advocative journalism culture is predominant in transitional democracies, such as in Eastern

Europe and Latin America journalists display a strong interventionist ethos in an environment
where democracy has not been consolidated and political trust is particularly low.
o Developmental journalistic culture, is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, India, and sub-
Saharan Africa where journalists see themselves as agents of social change and, in this vein,
prefer interventionist approaches to news making.

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o Collaborative journalism culture in countries of the Middle East and South East Asia including
China with with low press freedom, journalists are subject to government directives and
expected to praise politicians, and non-cooperation is punished.
Uses and Limitations of Comparative Method

• The comparative method helps to develop causal theories with considerable generality and wide
range of applicability. This type of comparative analysis is labelled by Tilly- the universalising
comparison.
• The classical work of Skocpol (1979) on social revolutions represents a typical example of
comparative studies that seek to go beyond observing the extent to which the compared units
differ or are similar. She proposes a general causal model according to which a social revolution
can be accounted for in terms of a conjuncture of three developments:
o the collapse or incapacitation of central administrative and military machineries,
o widespread peasant rebellions; and
o marginal elite political movements.
• Comparative method is also utilized to compare political systems across time.
Criticisms
• A major issue in the comparative method concerns the choice of the units being compared.
Sometimes in the Comparative Politics, it has been tried to draw parallel between two or more
incomparable themes leading to imprecise conclusions.
• Further, in social sciences, there is typically the absence of large enough number of cases and
reliable data that prevents the analyst from using the conventional statistical methods.
• According to A. Lijphart claimed that "the phrase comparative politics specifies the "how" but does
not postulate the "what" of the analysis".
• The other problem raised by researchers with the comparative method is that research might be
not objective and the researcher purposely chooses countries to demonstrate negative or positive
moments to proof his/her opinion.
• There is the problem of conceptual stretching- Conceptual stretching is the distortion that occurs
when a concept developed for one set of cases is extended to additional cases to which the features
of the concept do not apply in the same manner. Sartori illustrated this problem by means of the
‘ladder of generality’.
• Another issue is Galton’s problem which refers to the situation where the observed differences
and similarities may well be caused by exogenous factors that are common to all the cases selected
for comparison.

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Characteristics and Changing Nature of State

• The most popular unit of analysis in comparative politics is the state.
• The modern idea of the state emerged in Europe between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries,
the use of the word state as a political term coming into common use towards the end of this
period.
• According to Max Weber, the primary formal characteristics of the modern state are as follows:
o it possesses an administrative and legal order subject to change by legislation, to which

the organised activities of the administrative staff, which are also controlled by
regulations, are oriented.
o The system of order claims authority, not only over the members of the state, the citizens,
most of whom have obtained membership by birth, but also to a very large extent over all
action taking place in the area of its jurisdiction. It is thus a compulsory organisation with
a territorial basis.
o Furthermore, today, the use of force is regarded as legitimate only so far as it is permitted
by the state or prescribed by it.

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• In the words of Christopher W. Morris, the State is characterized in terms of a number of
interrelated features namely:
o Continuity in Space and Time: The State is a set of political organisations whose
institutions endure over time
o Transcendence: The State’s institutions do not constitute it; they are its agents
o Political Organisation: These are institutions through which the State acts
o Authority: The sovereign is the ultimate source of political authority in its territory
o Allegiance: Citizens owe allegiance to the State and the State has a strong loyalty towards
them
Liberal Capitalist Idea of State

• Night Watchman State- Adam Smith, John Locke
• Development State- J.S. Mill, T.H. Green
• Welfare State- Keynes, J.K. Galbraith
• Neo-Liberal State- Hayek, Nozick
• Pluralist- Truman, Dahl, MacIver
Liberal perspectives of state in Capitalist society.

• Negative liberalism
• Liberalism developed as a distinctive form of ideology that accepted the State only in so far as
it could be justified by a rational discourse appealing to universal standards of human nature
and justice.
• Liberal thought supported the Rule of Law as it would protect citizens best from arbitrary rule
and leave individuals free to pursue their own private lives and accumulate wealth and
property.
• The early Liberals, John Locke, Montesquieu, David Hume, Adam Smith, James Mill and
Jeremy Bentham accepted democracy because it was the best way to protect individual liberty
from growing power of the State.
• Liberals first believed that the right to vote and to hold office would be restricted to those
individuals who owned a certain amount of property, but 19th century liberals such as John
Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville expanded the definitions of equality, freedom and
democracy.

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Welfare State and Capitalist Society

• The latter half of the nineteenth century produced a critique of negative liberalism. The theories of
non- interference were found to be inadequate to achieve the social and economic aims of
liberalism.
• The laissez faire policy was based on the premise that in the good of the individual, lies the good of
the society.
• However, the latter half of the nineteenth century saw the rapid concentration of capital in a few
hands, monopolistic control of trade, and emergence of big industrial houses which created many
social, economic and political contradictions.
• Another factor which undermined faith in the laissez faire was unemployment.
• A thoroughgoing revision of liberal theory required a re- examination of the nature and functions
of the state, the nature of liberty and the relationship between Liberty and authority.
• Such a re-examination also opened the question of the relationship between individual human
nature and its relations with society because the old notions such as self-interest, pleasure and
utility proved less convincing. ‘
• This revision was carried out by J.S. Mill, T.H. Green in the nineteenth century and Hobson,
Barker, Laski, Keynes, MacIver and Galbraith in the twentieth century.
Features of positive liberalism

• Firstly, although it continued to retain faith in the autonomy, rights and liberty of the
individual, now it believed that man is a part of the social whole and the liberties could be
secured only so long as they could be reconciled with the social good.
• Secondly, liberty, like justice and equality, is not an empty social ideal, but derives its specific
content from a particular social and historical milieu in which it has to be understood. It further
states that Liberty and equality are complementary.
• Thirdly, positive liberalism believed in regulated capitalist economy, in the overall interest of
society.
• Fourthly, at the political level, positive liberalism depended upon the proposition that the sense of
public good or general welfare is an effective motive of politics. The state is an instrument for the
development of human personality through welfare measures.
• J.K. Galbraith talks about “culture of contentment” in capitalist societies. Galbraith traces the
growth of a dulling contentment in the Western industrial world, represented by the G7 group of
countries.

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• He pays particular attention to the self-serving economic comfort achieved by the fortunate and
politically dominant community and contrasts this to the condition of the underclass which he
sees as being for the first time in these countries stalled in poverty.
• These contended people, mostly the upper class worry mostly about
current conditions and their own immediate welfare, failing to
consider future consequences of current policies. This short-
sightedness, Galbraith conjectures, is likely to lead to one or more
social problems.
• Only economic disaster, military action, or the eruption of an angry

underclass seem capable of changing the status quo.
• Galbraith cites a variety of twentieth century cases in support of his

argument. Political and social elites in the communist countries, for
example, all failed to see that their repression would lead to eventual
overthrow. In US, the 2008 recession can be seen as an example of
the same.

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Neo –liberalism and Capitalist Society

• Just as early positive Liberalism and its later variant, the Welfare State, were a reaction to the
‘excesses’ of Classical Liberalism, Neo-liberalism has come about as a consequence of
disenchantment with the Welfare State.
• The Neo-liberal State, largely came to be seen as a concrete manifestation of the New Right
philosophy that emerged in Thatcherite England in the late 1970s.
• Now, regarding the origins of the New Right, Heywood has argued that “Its origins and ideas can
be traced to the 1970s”.
• “The New Right’s growth occurred in conjunction with the apparent failure of the Keynesian
Welfare State, signified by the end of the post-war economic boom and increasing concerns by the
political elite over social breakdown and the decline of authority.”
• The triumvirate of ‘Hayek, Nozick and Friedman is regarded as providing the core for the
intellectual growth of New Right ideas.
• Neo-liberal. State in Capitalist society is premised on four basic postulates.
• These are:
o Market Driven Economy- Neo-liberalism believes in restoring the market to its position of
primacy. It believes in ‘principles of laissez-faire economics’ and ‘in the sanctity and
supremacy of market mechanisms’ for ‘equitable outcomes’. In other words, ‘the morality
of the market’.
o The maximization of individual liberty and freedom through the rolling back of the State
from the economy’.
o Monetarism-Neo-liberalism, held ‘that inflation, not unemployment, was the major

problem’ and could be rectified by regulating the money supply.
o Relegation of the Welfare State-Neo-liberalism believes in ‘cutting back of the Welfare

State, which was regarded as shifting the potential of free market and encouraging a
culture of dependency.

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Pluralist theory
• In the pluralist theory of state the state in liberal capitalist has come to be viewed increasingly by
the liberals as a political association distinct from the government that encompasses all public
bodies and exercises impersonal authority on the basis of the assumption that it represents the
permanent interests of the society, rising above the partisan interests:
o The pluralists have viewed the state as a neutral entity, acting in the interests of all and
representing what can be called the common good or public interest. The central argument
of the Pluralism is that political power is dispersed amongst a wide variety of social
groups rather than an elite or ruling class. Under such an institutional understanding of the
state its foremost function is considered to uphold order and provide social stability.
State in Capitalist Society according to Marxists

• Marx held state as a part of superstructure which
defined the role of state as per the ownership of means
of production. Lenin, one of the prominent followers of
Marx considers the existence of state as the refection of
irreconcilability of class contradictions.
• Marxist theory considers state as a product of force/ subjugation. Its major function is to act as
executive committee of bourgeoisie. Marxist theory of state has two perspectives: Instrumentalist
tradition and Structuralist tradition
Miliband vs. Poulantzas’ debate and nature of Capitalist State

• Later Marxists have differed considerably with each other on the interpretations of the Marxist
concept of the State. One of the most celebrated of such differences is the now famous ‘Miliband
vs. Poulantzas’ debate.
• Ralph Miliband ‘State in capitalist society’ begins by stressing the need to separate the governing
classes from the ruling classes. The latter exercises ultimate control whereas the former makes day-
to-day decisions.
• Miliband is suggesting that the ruling class does not get embroiled in the everyday business of
governance, for the State is an instrument that is for the domination of society on behalf of this
very class.
• His contention is that in order to be politically effective the State has to separate itself from the
ruling class. And in doing this, it might even have to take actions that might not be in the interests
of the ruling class, of course in the long run.

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• For Poulantzas the class affiliations of those in State positions and offices is not of any
significance. He draws attention to the structural components of the capitalist State which
enable it to protect the long-term framework of capitalist production even if it means severe
conflict with some segments of the capitalist class.
• A fundamental point in Poulantza’s argument is that the State is what holds together capitalism by
ensuring political organization of the dominant classes that are constantly engaged in conflict due
to competitive pressures and short term differences.
• Further the State in capitalist economies ensures ‘political disorganization’ of the working
classes which because of many reasons can threaten the hegemony of the dominant classes, the
State also undertakes the task of political ‘regrouping’ by a complex ‘ideological process’ of classes
from the non-dominant modes of production who could act against the State.
• Thus in this perspective the centralized modern State is both a necessary result of the ‘anarchic
competition of civil society’ and a force in the reproduction of such competition and division.
Neo Marxist Perspective

• Laying foundations of neo-Marxism, Gramsci talks of the superstructure as ‘integral state’
consisting of Political Society (Rule through Force) and Civil Society (Rule through consent/
hegemony).
• For Gramsci, hegemony was a form of control exercised primarily through a society’s
superstructure, as opposed to its base or social relations of production of a predominately
economic character.
• As Anderson notes, Gramsci uses

“hegemony” to theorize not only the
necessary condition for a successful
overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the
proletariat and its allies (e.g., the
peasantry), but also the structures of
bourgeois power in late 19th- and early
20th-century Western European states.

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Althusser’s view
• Louis Althusser felt that for a ruling class to survive and prosper, the reproduction of labor power
is essential. Generations of workers must be reproduced to create the profits on which capitalism
depends.
• Althusser argues that this kind of reproduction involves reproduction of skills necessary for an
efficient labor force as well as reproduction of ruling class ideology and the socialization of
workers in terms of it.
• No class, according to him can hold power for any length of time simply by use of force.
Ideological control provides a better means of maintaining class rule.
State in socialist economies
• Socialist countries started with the hope that state will wither away. However after communist
revolutions, very powerful states came into
existence.
• As far as Russia and other east European

countries are concerned, communism collapsed
and countries adopted democracy, explained by
Samuel P Huntington and third wave of
democracy. However the transition from
authoritarianism towards democracy remains a
far fetched dream.
• Majority of the countries have gone back towards

the path of authoritarianism or semi-
authoritarianism. e.g. Russia, Countries of
Central Asia, East European countries like
Belarus, Ukraine and even Hungary. These
countries also show the neo-fascist authoritarian
trends.
• The other islands of socialism like Cuba,

continues to be one-party-state but it is not as
exploitative as the other socialist countries. Since
2021, there has been a resurgence of left parties in
Latin America called the Pink Tide.
• This resurgence has been based on millennial left generation, wide ranging social protests and
increasing criticism of corrupt and macho policies of right-wing governments.

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Corporatism
• Corporatism, as Peter Self puts it, is even more slippery concept than Pluralism. As another
important strand in Liberalism, it lays stress on the social nature and the need for a systematic
social order, rather than opportunities for competitive pursuit of individual freedom and
happiness.
• Corporate States have sought to limit the number of representative organizations and granted
those they officially recognized a kind of monopoly where policies are decided within
representative organizations.
• Corporatism can also be defined as a distinctive combination of political representation and

State intervention. Corporatism shares with socialism a view of competition as wasteful.
Corporatism chains all private firms to the discipline of a national plan.
• The Neo-corporatist theory is more in tune with capitalist societies. Neo-corporatist theory
recognizes the significance of the cleavage between capital labour, and the groups that form
around this cleavage.
• While the Pluralist theory tends to regard the State as neutral with respect to interest mediated, the
Neo-corporatists suggest that there is more to the State’s neutrality. The structural rules within
which bargaining takes place exclude marginal groups and issues. The central theme of Neo-
corporatist theory is the intermediation between core interests in civil society and those of the
State.
Chinese state capitalism

• For decades, China has been cast as exemplifying “state capitalism,” a broad concept meant to
explain mixed economies in which the state retains a dominant role amidst the presence of
markets and private firms.
• China’s post-Mao economic reform process has always been multifaceted, nonlinear, and
contested. It has not followed a singular established blueprint.
• From the 1970s through the early 1990s, the CCP worked in fits and starts to layer market activity
on top of a planned economy. Agricultural reforms set up markets for goods that farmers
produced over and above required quotas. Private enterprises were informally encouraged, even
as state-owned enterprises (SOEs) remained dominant and the state continued to control key
economic inputs, especially land and capital.
• It was only in the late 1990s that the CCP began to significantly privatize and downsize the state-
owned sector. By the mid-2000s, China’s state capitalism was primarily about managing the
remaining large SOEs to contribute to economic growth, create wealth for the party-state, and
look out for its economic and strategic interests at home and internationally.

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• By the late 2000s, China similarly faced a critical juncture in its reform process, out of which
party-state capitalism emerged. The global financial crisis of 2008–9 amplified already widespread
concerns in China about the country’s economic dependence on exports.
• Beijing responded to the crisis with a massive credit-driven economic stimulus, much of which
went into infrastructure and land development. Within a few years, rising local government and
corporate debt raised fears of oversupply in these sectors.
• These economic trends, combined with growing social instability and widespread corruption,
called for policy responses. Intellectuals associated with the “New Left” sought correctives to what
they perceived as the more pernicious effects of markets and private ownership, especially
inequality and bourgeois decadence.
• Nick Lardy argues, The resumption of state-led growth, in which a growing share of resources is
flowing into investment by relatively low productivity state firms, and an increasingly
omnipresent party are contributing to China’s growth slowdown.
• While the Xi administration has taken steps to boost the performance of SOEs, there will inevitably
remain a critical tension between the size of the state sector and China’s positive growth trajectory.
State in Advanced Industrial and Developing Societies

• Advanced Industrial Societies
o Neo Pluralism: Charles Lindblom and J K Galbraith
o Managerial Revolution: James Burnham
o Chomsky, Inglehart
o Marcuse, Edward Shils, Seymour Martin Lipset
State in Advanced Industrial societies

• The idea of the Managerial revolution given by James Burnham- In the aftermath of WW II,
Burnham’s claim was that capitalism was dead, but that it was being replaced not by socialism, but
a new economic system he called “managerialism”; rule by managers.
• Burnham observed that Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and the U.S. under Franklin Roosevelt
were developing along parallel paths, creating an economic system in which power rested not with
capitalists or workers, but managers.
• The higher positions of the corporate have been opened up to the proletariat due to coming up of
professional educational courses for management. However given the current division of means of
production the have-nots cannot afford the same and a class based stratified society continues.

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• N. Chomsky in his ‘Government in the future’ agrees that it's accurate to say that a corporate elite
of managers and owners governs the economy and the political system as well—at least in a very
large measure. Chomsky argues that while the AIS have technical and material resources to meet
man's animal needs, they have not developed the cultural and moral resources—or the democratic
forms of social organization—that make possible the humane and rational use of material wealth
and power.
• The neo-pluralists such as Charles Lindblom and JK Galbraith have, argued that the advanced
industrialized states are both more complex and less responsive to popular pressures than what
the classical pluralists had assumed. They argue that these states have witnessed the rise of
‘deformed polyarchy’.
• R. Inglehart in his ‘The Silent Revolution’ argues that technological, and sociopolitical changes
have been transforming the cultures of advanced industrial societies which have far-reaching
political implications.
• Though economic factors tend to play a dominant role in the early stages of industrial society, in
advanced industrial society their relative importance diminishes; and self-expression,
‘belonging’ and the quality of the physical and social environment become increasingly
important.
• For H. Marcuse in his Two Dimension of Advanced Industrial Societies writes that human
societies are composed of two dimensions- civilisation and culture. Civilisation is the current
material structure of life- political, economic, social while Culture is the complex of distinctive
beliefs, traditions, attitudes, values in a society.
• According to Marcus in AIS, the tension between Civilisation and Culture has been
systematically reduced through a type of colonisation of the actual content of culture.
State in Developing Societies

• Political Development and Modernisation: Lucian Pye (3 parameters: Equality, Capacity and
Differentiation), Rustow:
o Neo-Marxist: A.G. Frank, Samir Amin, Wallerstein;
o Structuralist/ Post colonial: Humza Alavi, Fanon, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak;
o Soft State by Gunnar Myrdal.

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State in developing Societies by liberal and modernization theorists
• Rustow’s Model of Modernisation and Neo-modernisation theory is put forward by Jeffrey Sachs.
• F.W. Riggs’ idea of Prismatic Societies.
• Gunnar Myrdal’s idea of Soft State.

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• According to Myrdal, a crucial difference found between the advanced countries and the poor
countries, is the existence of strong state in the former and the weak (or soft) in the latter.
• With the help of strong state, advanced nations formulate and implement a coherent national
policy which helps economic growth and development across the regions of the country. On the
other hand, in the poor countries, the State lacks effective policies to either ensure that there is a
movement toward national economic integration or to address the impact of backwash effects.
• Myrdal observed that political power is largely concentrated in the hands of top social strata in
the underdeveloped countries. These elite groups through their money and muscle power
accumulate all power and do not fear and even violate state power. These people escape
punishment by adopting means of political pressure on the bureaucracy and other executive
functionaries.
• Myrdal advocated institutional reforms in the underdeveloped countries in order to usher

economic growth and development in these countries. Examples of some of these reforms as
advocated by Myrdal are fight against corruption, land reforms, and displacement of elite from the
commanding heights of state policy.
Post-colonial perspective
• Hamza Alavi, writing in the concrete context of South Asia did the pioneer work in this regard.
• His theorization of the nature of postcolonial state under peripheral capitalism was complimented
by the African neo-Marxists like lssa Shivji, John Saul and Colin Leys.
• The major contention of Alavi is that the post-colonial state dominates the politics as well as the
civil society because of its over-developed superstructure which is relatively autonomous because
it mediates as well as act on behalf of the three dominant proprietary classes- the metropolitan
bourgeoisie, the indigenous bourgeoisie, and the landed classes having competing interests.
• Second, as per Alavi the state in post-colonial societies directly appropriates a very large part of
the economic surplus and deploys it in bureaucratically directed economic activities under
peripheral capitalism.
• Third, according to Alavi and John Saul, yet another factor that underlines the crucial significance
of the state in post-colonial societies is the particular ideological function of the state.
• In the words of Saul: ‘state’s function of providing ideological cement for the capitalist system is
one which has gradually evolved in the core countries in step with their economic transformation.

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Dependency and World System theory
• For Marx, capitalist development nevertheless always had a marked transnational character,
leading some to regard him as an early ‘hyperglobalist’ theorist. The desire for profit would drive
capitalism to ‘strive to tear down every barrier to intercourse’ and to ‘conquer the whole earth for
its market’.
• Rosa Luxemburg also viewed imperialism as "the last stage in the historical race of capitalism”-
unequal exchange between imperialist and colonised (pre- capitalist) countries in the
accumulation of capital.
• In ‘The Accumulation of Capital’, she also emphasised the historical role played by militarism in
capital accumulation and pioneered the study of the relationship among political domination,
military occupation, and external debt.
• Further, Luxemburg argued that militarism "is a pre-eminent means for the realisation of surplus
value; it is in itself a province of accumulation", which would later form the basis of the 'military-
industrial complex" of the great empires.
• In his Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin portrayed imperialism as an

essentially economic phenomenon, reflecting domestic capitalism’s quest to maintain profit levels
through the export of surplus capital.
• This, in turn, would bring major capitalist powers into

conflict with one another, the resulting war (WWI)
being essentially an imperialist war in the sense that it
was fought for the control of colonies in Africa, Asia and
elsewhere.
• Under monopoly capitalism, a two-tier structure had

developed in the world economy, with a dominant core
exploiting a less-developed periphery. The bourgeoisie
in the core countries could use profits derived from
exploiting the periphery to improve the lot of their own
proletariat.
• Lenin's views were developed by the Latin American

Dependency School, adherents of which developed the
notion of core and periphery in greater depth.

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• Raul Prebisch (UN ECLA) argued that countries in the periphery were suffering as a result of
what he called 'the declining terms of trade'. As a result of their reliance on primary goods,
countries of the periphery become poorer relative to the core.
• From ,the perspective of the newly liberated states of Afro-Asia, K. Nkrumah has rightly come to
be considered the pioneer of the theory of neo- colonialism. He considered neo-colonialism to be
the last stage of imperialism.
• Samir Amin in his Accumulation on a World Scale borrowed the term ‘neocolonialism’ from
Kwame Nkrumah and used it to describe the new relationship between the economically
dominant former colonial powers and the newly independent states.
• Amin describes underdevelopment as a cumulative sum of the whole history of capitalist

expansion in a world system divided into centre and periphery. The centre-and-periphery is
discussed in detail by Amin in his book Unequal Development and by A G Frank in his
book Dependent Accumulation.
• A.G. Frank in his Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America developed his thesis that
'underdevelopment as we know it today and economic development as well, are the simultaneous
and related products of the development on a world- scale.
• He maintained that capitalism at centre and the

periphery are dynamically related and the
dynamics produce development at both ends.
• However, the problem according to Frank is

that in contrast to the centre, which alone reaps
all the benefits of development, what occurs at
the end of the periphery is the development of
underdevelopment.
• According to to Frank, capitalism constantly

generates underdevelopment in satellite/
peripheral countries through the expropriation
of surplus by the advanced metropolitan
countries.

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What is the way out?
• Amin’s alternative to the above is ‘delinking’. Delinking: Towards a Polycentric World, he
presents his manifesto for change, which suggests polycentricism i.e. existence of several systems
as an alternative to neoliberal development.
• He proposes to achieve with the creation of new political and social movements that respect
diversity and fight for international economic and social justice.
• Similarly for Frank, a satellite country experiences highest growth rate only when its link with the
metropolitan countries is the weakest.
Criticism of dependency theory

• It has been argued that Frank, perhaps, overemphasises the vertical relationship between
metropolitan and satellite countries and thereby ignores the historical ties, which sustain the
dependency structure.
• Regarding dependency, the late 1970s and the 1980s saw changes and internal differentiation
within the ‘third world’ which was not easily captured with either the categories of dependency or
the centre–periphery model especially with rise of newly industrialized countries (NICs) such as
South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
• Second, the rise of indigenous bourgeoisie within the third world countries has been another
factor that has been ignored by the dependency theorists.
• Third, the dependency theorists have failed to situate the third world states in the context of
indigenous class struggles. The third world states have been erroneously dubbed as being mere
agents for transfer of surplus, which is not the case.
• Marxist Scholars like Bill Warren and Sanjay Lall in fact went to the extent to argue that, with
colonialism at an end, and with several developing countries in a stronger position, international
capitalism was no longer the way they imagined.

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Wallerstein’s World System Approach

• Wallerstein, global history has been marked by the rise and demise of a series of world systems.
The modern world system emerged in Europe at around the turn of the sixteenth century. The
driving force behind this seemingly relentless process of expansion and incorporation has been
capitalism. World systems theory took the idea of core and peripheral countries and expanded it in
following geographical zones:
o Core countries are wealthy, militarily strong, and hold significant social power and
colonial power.
o Peripheral countries are poor, have exploitable resources, and do not possess great social
stability or government.
o Semi-peripheral countries have some of the characteristics of core and peripheral

countries.
o External areas are countries or regions that fall outside of the scope of world systems
theory.
• According to world-systems theorists, the three zones of the world economy are linked together in
an exploitative relationship in which wealth is drained away from the periphery to the core.
• Wallerstein’s semi-periphery displays certain features characteristic of the core and others
characteristic of the periphery. Although dominated by core economic interests, the semi-
periphery has its own relatively vibrant indigenously owned industrial base.
• Because of this hybrid nature, the semi-periphery plays important economic and political roles in
the modern world system. In particular, it provides a source of labour that counteracts any
upward pressure on wages in the core and also provides a new home for those industries that can
no longer function profitably in the core (for example, car assembly and textiles).

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• The semi-periphery also plays a vital role in stabilizing the political structure of the world
system.
• A key component of Wallerstein's analysis has been to describe how world systems have a
distinctive life cycle: a beginning, a middle, and an end. According to Wallerstein, the international
community has two options- either adopt socialism or head towards barbarism.
• In his work, ‘Geopolitics And Geoculture: Essays On The Changing World- System’, Wallerstein
talks about the dominant 'geoculture’ which is the cultural framework within which the world-
system operates. He gives the the following four thesis:
o There was no 'geoculture' during the first three centuries of the world system, that is to
say, before the French Revolution.
o With the French Revolution, we finally found a `geoculture', but as a tension established by
three ideologies: conservatism (right), liberalism (center) and socialism (left);
o Liberalism was the prevailing ideology during two centuries (1789-1989), nonetheless, it
collapsed at the same time that real socialism dissolved in 1989.
o The American hegemony(Pax Americana) has come to its end, just as the Modern Age,
which started 500 years ago, so we are open to a New chaos Age, a 'Dark Age' which will
continue until a new civilizing system (between 2025 to 2050) is established.

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Criticism of World System theory
• Wallerstein's theory provoked harsh criticism, not only from neoliberal or conservative circles but
even from some historians who say that some of his assertions may be historically incorrect.
• Arthur Stinchcombe was very critical of Wallerstein's The Modern World- System, writing that the
book presents no theoretical argument and no determinate mechanisms.
• Some critics suggest that Wallerstein tended to neglect the cultural dimension of the modern
world-system, arguing that there is a world system of global culture which is independent from
the economic processes of capitalism; this reduces it to what some call "official" ideologies of states
which can then easily be revealed as mere agencies of economic interest.
• Criticism also came from Critical theorists like Robert Cox for its static nature, their focus on
nation-states as the sole actors and their ensuing inability to explain change.

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Nations and Nationalism

• Nation is seen as a cultural and historical concept describing a group of people who identify with
one another on the basis of a shared history, culture, language, or myths.
• Where states exist under law, nations are considered by B. Anderson to be ‘imagined
communities’ and are often viewed as any group that upholds a claim to be regarded as such. This
can be further qualified in two ways:
o First, nations are peoples with homelands.
o Second, when a group claims to be a nation, it usually professes a right to self-

determination within its homeland.
• Nationalism may be defined as the belief that a group of people with a common national
identity (usually marked by a shared culture and history) has the right to form an independent
state and to govern itself free of external intervention.
• Ernest Gellner is widely seen as one of the most important theorists in the study of nationalism.
Gellner writes, “Nationalism is primarily a political principle which holds that the political unit
and the national unit should be congruent.”
• According to Gellner, nationalism is the result of some specific aspects of modernisation. His most
prominent theory on the origin of nationalism starts by regarding the transformation of society
from an agrarian society and economy to an industrial one.
• Gellner in Nations and Nationalism points to factors that led to rise of nationalism:
o According to Gellner industrial society the barriers between communities are broken due to
a standardized, mass education which allows for economic and social mobility.
o Gellner believes that nationalism strives for one culture or ethnicity under one roof, or
‘state’, therefore a votary of cultural homogenisation. Thus another major factor in
Gellner’s assimilationist strategy is of linguistic standardisation.
o Gellner viewed central monitoring of polity, with extensive bureaucratic control as a major
factor for nationalism.
o National identification as abstract community.
o Cultural similarity as a basis for political legitimacy.
• Meadwell mentions several criticisms of Gellner. First that Gellner never proves the nationalism is
necessary for industrial society. Secondly, It fails to account for either nationalism in non-
industrial society and resurgences of nationalism in post-industrial society.
• Eric Hobsbawm views the nation as a changing, evolving, modern construct that is brought into
being by nationalism, and not the other way around.

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• He agrees that there are certain political, technical, administrative and economic conditions
necessary for the emergence of the nation, such as the existence of administrative and educational
infrastructure.
• Furthermore, there are three phases to the development of nationalism according to Hobsbawm:
o A preliminary phase in which the idea of the nation is purely cultural and/or folkloric;
o A pioneering phase wherein political campaigners begin to try and raise awareness and
mobilize the nation;
o And finally, the stage at which nationalist movements acquire mass support, an occurrence
which can come to pass before or after the birth of the state.
• Benedict Anderson is best known for his work regarding Nationalism in his book Imagined
Communities. Anderson stresses on two things:
o Imagined: because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their
fellow- members.
o Limited: because even the largest of them, has finite, if elastic, boundaries, beyond which lie
other nations.
o Community: Finally, says Anderson, 'it is imagined as a community because regardless of the
actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a
deep horizontal relationship.
According to Anderson's theory of imagined communities, the main causes of

nationalism are
• the movement to abolish the ideas of rule by divine right and hereditary monarchy and;
• the emergence of printing press capitalism which led to standardization of national calendars,
clocks and language was embodied in books and the publication of daily newspapers- all
phenomena occurring with the start of the Industrial Revolution.
• The fact that the nation is an imaginary construct does not, however, mean that its political effect is
any less real. On the contrary, Anderson argued, this imagined community creates a deep
horizontal comradeship, for which countless people have willingly sacrificed themselves.
• Partha Chatterjee, rejected Anderson’s representation of nationalism as the creation of creole

pioneers and argued that nationalism was an ideology imposed by the colonizing power such that
“even our imaginations must forever remain colonized.”

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Partha Chatterjee on anticolonial nationalism
• Partha Chatterjee criticized Anderson’s theory as ethnocentric. He questions the need from
nationalisms in the rest of the world to choose their imagined community from certain “modular”
forms already made available to them by Europe and the America.
• Instead, Chatterjee seeks to draw a distinction between nationalism as a political movement (the
outer domain) and nationalism as a cultural construct (the inner domain). Whilst the former
seeks to challenge the colonial state, the latter enables the colonised subject to create an
autonomous personal space.
• Further in the material domain — the domain of the “outside” — of the economy, statecraft,
science and technology, the West is superior and may be emulated. But in the spiritual domain —
the “inner” domain — which marks cultural identity, colonial distinctness must be preserved.
• Thus, anticolonial nationalism operates “to fashion a modern project that is

nevertheless not Western”. For example in case of language, while the impact of print-capitalism
is unheralded, it does not imply a simple transposition of European patterns or standards to the
development of the “national” language in the colonies.
Civic vs Ethnic Nationalism

• The origins of the distinction between civic and ethnic nationalism are to be found in the works of
Hans Kohn, one of the first modern writers on nationalism.
• Writing at the end of World War II, Kohn distinguished between:
• Civic nationalism, a rational and liberal way of thinking founded on respect for human rights and
personal freedoms, and;
• Ethnic nationalism, a mystical, religious, and ethnocentric mindset predicated on tribal feelings
• Civic nationalism, Kohn argued, is characteristic of liberal-minded Western states and is a modern
political phenomenon closely related to the pursuit of personal liberty; ethnic nationalism is typical
of Eastern states, focused on folk culture, language, and ethnicity, and therefore primitive,
emotional, and motivated by blood and belonging.

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Is India a nation-state or state-nation?
• In Crafting State-Nations: India and other Multinational Democracies, political scientists Juan
Linz, Alfred Stepan, and Yogendra Yadav argued that ethnically diverse societies have one of two
options when balancing the twin objectives of nation-building and democracy-building:
o Construction of a nation-state in which the political boundaries of the State mirror the
cultural boundaries of the nation.
o For culturally diverse entities with strong sub national identities, the scholar suggest an
alternate path of ‘state-nation’, which allows for a multiplicity of “imagined
communities” to coexist beneath a single democratic roof.
• Milan Vaishnav argues that the ability to possess multiple, complementary identities was a key
element of the state-nation model, but not the only one. Asymmetric federalism, an embrace of
individual rights and collective recognition, and a belief in political integration without cultural
assimilation were also critical.
• Linz, Stepan and Yadav also warn against going down the path of a Eurocentric model of nation-
state that Sri Lanka was lured down by the siren song of religious hegemony, linguistic uniformity,
and cultural assimilation which eventually led to decades of civil conflict and disharmony for the
country.
• On the other hand, certain scholars argue against India fitting in either of the models and instead
suggest the concept of civilisational state as applying to the Indian scenario- the civilisational
continuity and heritage of past several millennia.
• The case of India can be summed up through Sunil Khilnani’s ‘idea of India’ which he argues was
created by collisions between cultures and politics, a product of various ideas prevailing at
particular times. Khilnani credits Nehru’s idea of Indianness which allowed for pluralism and
cultural diversity (rather than a singular identity) within the territorial and institutional framework
of a democratic state.
Banal Nationalism
• According to Michael Billing, once the national identity is consolidated
and political autonomy secured, a national-cultural status quo is
reached. At the stage of “banal nationalism” nation-building efforts are
relaxed, and the national-cultural background turns transparent.
• Banal nationalism refers to the everyday representations of the nation

which build a shared sense of national belonging amongst humans, a
sense of tribalism through national identity.
• Examples of banal nationalism include the use of flags in everyday contexts, sporting
events, national songs, symbols on money, popular expressions and turns of phrase, patriotic
clubs, the use of implied togetherness in the national press, etc.
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Nations without a State
• As a political principle, nationalism holds that the nation and the state should be congruent.
However, there are many nations in the world which are without a state. At least four situations
can be distinguished:
• A nation state may acknowledge the 'cultural differences' of its minorities, without allowing
more than the cultivation and promotion of their own culture and maintenance of some deep-
rooted elements of socio-cultural traditions. For example, Scotland and Wales within Britain.
• Another option is a certain degree of autonomy within the state such as given to Catalonia and the
Basque country within the Autonomous Community System created in Spain under Franco's
dictatorship.
• A nation can be integrated within a federation which permits high degree of self-determination
for nations without a state. For example, Quebec in the Canadian political system has benefited
from wide political powers to decide about their social, economic and political life without actually
becoming independent.
• There are certain nations which completely lack recognition from the state which contains them.
In such cases, the state employs itself in formulating policies aiming at eliminating the differences
within its territory. Violence in the form of military control of national minorities is one option.
Palestinians living in Israel, Tibetans in China etc are clear examples of this situation.
States without Nation
• The term 'states without a nation' or 'state-nation' is applied

to a situation in which a state is arbitrarily designed
ignoring the cultural and linguistic identities groups falling
within its boundaries.
• A state-nation involves the creation of a state apparatus

which controls the legitimate use of the means of violence
within its territory, holds internal external sovereignty and
receives international recognition of its status.
• The notion of the states without nation is applied in the case

of ex-colonial countries of Asia and Africa where in most
cases there is no sense in which a nation preceded the
emergence of the state.
• Here a difference can , be made between the initial form of nationalism as a movement directed
against the colonial rule and engaged in the struggle for independence, and nationalism's
subsequent transformation into a political discourse employed by new leaders to construct a nation
capable of sustaining the legitimacy of the state inherited from the colonial masters.

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Bureaucracy
• The study of the bureaucracy (also known as the civil service) focuses on the networks of central
departments and public agencies that underpin the political executive. These networks have two
main functions:
o they give advice to politicians before policy is made, and
o they help to implement decisions once reached.
• The notion of bureaucracy can be extended further: the administrative staff of any large
organization – such as a university, a political party, or a corporation – can be considered a
bureaucracy.
• Ancient kingdoms and empires had some form of bureaucracy, perhaps the most famous being
that of China. Based on principles set down by Confucius in the sixth century BC, China
established the first meritocracy, with bureaucrats earning their positions through examination.
• Karl Marx was one of the first to theorize about the bureaucracy, arguing that its development was
a natural counterpart to the development of the private corporation, and that the two were
mutually reliant.
• The first systematic study of the bureaucracy, however, was undertaken by the German
sociologist Max Weber that saw it as a hierarchy of professional, salaried officials making rational
decisions- rational legal authority.
Features of Bureaucracy by Weber

• Personnel
o Formal lifelong employment of bureaucrats who receive a fixed salary and earn pension
rights in return for their service.
o Largely recruited on merit and promoted largely on the basis of their seniority.
• Organisation
o Specialization, training, functional division of labour, well-defined areas of jurisdiction, and

a clear hierarchy among the bureaucrats.
• Procedure
o Impersonal application of general rules (mostly laws and government decrees); business is
conducted on the basis of written documents, bureaucratic decisions are recorded, and the
relevant documents carefully stored.

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• While Weber’s ideas were highly influential in continental Europe, they were less so in North
America, where civil services developed in more pragmatic fashion- the spoils system. The spoils
system is a patronage-based arrangement in which elected politicians distribute government jobs
to those with the foresight to support the winning candidate.
• The claim was that the spoils system would be democratic in two ways.
o It would allow the victor of the democratic contest to work with an administration that
shares his political philosophy.
o It trusted ordinary Americans rather than a closed elite of professional bureaucrats with the
business of government.
• In the United States, the system ensured that the election of a new President led to an almost
complete turnover of employees till 1833. Eventually, the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)
established a merit system that was gradually introduced for the bulk of government positions.
Only senior government jobs remained up for grabs for the victor.
• There are various concepts of bureaucracy such as the idea of representative bureaucracy. The
concept emerged in the wake of elitist nature of civil services in numerous countries, especially
western ones. It underlined the need to make bureaucracy representative of the society and
include all sections of the society.
• Numerous arguments were put forth in support of the same:
o It is more democratic in nature;
o Interests of various sections of the society may be promoted as public servants play a
significant role in policy making;
o It is easier for persons to communicate with persons coming from similar backgrounds;
o Representative bureaucracy is especially important to cater to the marginalised and

disadvantaged communities- in the Indian context this is relevant for scheduled castes,
scheduled tribes and backward classes.
• According to critics, representative bureaucracy may promote narrow sectarian interests and be
detrimental for unity and integrity in the long run. Further, there is an assumption that only
people from similar backgrounds can empathise with one another.
• The next important concept is that of committed bureaucracy. The idea most fundamentally,
entailed that a bureaucrat should be committed to the policies and programmes of the political
party in power. This is mostly a feature of bureaucracies in Socialist, Communist and conservative
states.

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• While Congress under Nehru believed that commitment to be towards values of constitutionalism
and goals set out in our Constitution. However, over time especially since l970’s it came to imply
full commitment to the individual politicians holding power.
• Over a period of time, this leads to the politician-bureaucrat nexus growing into into a powerful
force leading to ‘politicization of the bureaucracy’. The rise of delegated legislation and
administrative adjudication has also led to increasing clout of bureaucracy. James Manor- Steel
frame of India has become a cheap alloy.
• An important concept is neutral bureaucracy which is a feature of liberal democracies that

promote a dialogue among various ideologies. In such a situation, bureaucracy is expected to
maintain political neutrality.
• Despite arguments for neutrality and rationality, scholars argue that bureaucracy is essentially a
human organisation and so prone to problems of private interests and political preferences.
• Public choice theorist, Niskanen builds his theory on the simple assumption that bureaucrats have
the goal of increasing their budgets. This is because most of the bureaucrats’ personal incentives—
salary, reputation, power, policy-making capacity—are positively related to the size of their
organization’s budget. The push of the bureaucrats is met by the pull from societal groups and
their representatives who make increasing demands on government.

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Electoral systems
• The nature of electoral choice in each country is shaped by three sets of factors:
o First, the object of election, which may be to choose a constituency representative, party
list or president.
o Second, the party system, or pattern of voting alignments which in turn is shaped by
cleavages in society, the electoral system, and the manoeuvre of elites.
o Third, the electoral system, particularly those provisions which aggregate votes and
translate them into seats, that is, rules for counting and weighing votes.
• Political representation and participation get translated into democratic politics through electoral
systems. The quality of representation is directly related to the quality, regularity, and
arithmetic of elections, and one of the most telling distinctions between democracies and
authoritarian systems is that elections in the former are generally free and fair, while in the latter
they are not.
• There are numerous types of elections based on various kinds of categorisations. On the basis of
their significance, where the stakes are higher in first-order elections, second-order elections
include less significant mid-term and local elections.
• In parliamentary systems, for example, general elections are clearly first-order elections because
they might result in a change of government.

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Kinds of Legislative Electoral Systems

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Political Parties and Party system

• The concept of political participation has been popularised in Political Science by the
Behaviouralists. Participation is both an activity and an attitude. That was the basis on which
Americans were seen as having ‘participant political culture’. Political party is only one of so
many social agents associated with or responsible for political participation.
• Various theorists have looked at political parties in varying manners:
o Traditional Approach: A set of people having common ideology coming to work together
for national interest- Edmund Burke.
o Modern Approach: LaPalombara and Weiner argue that political parties are children of
“political development” and “modernization”. Critical junctures in a polity's history may
generate new political tendencies or parties. 5 crises can be identified in political
development: the crises of national identity, state legitimacy, political participation,
distribution of resources, and state penetration of society.
o Behavioralists who view political parties as vehicles of interest aggregation (Almond and
Verba). They also play a key role in political socialisation and recruitment. As per Robert
Michels, the modern party is a fighting organization in the political sense of the term, and
must as such conform to the laws of tactics.
Significance of political parties

• As per Zoya Hasan, a party is “a keystone political institution in representative regime”.
• Professor Harold J. Laski had underlined the importance of parties when he wrote, “There is no
alternative to party government, save dictatorship, in any state of modern size”.
• Government requires leaders, leaders require not an incoherent mob behind them, but an
organized following able to channelize the issues for an electorate with a free choice.
• Schattschneider famously remarked that , ‘the political parties created democracy, and modern
democracy is unthinkable save in terms of the parties’.
Marxist Concept of Parties

• According to the Marxist view parties represent classes. This situation can be remedied only with
the successful completion of class-struggle resulting in the victory of proletariat. The party that
represents the working people alone has the right to exist. The bourgeois parties do not represent
true democratic process. Therefore, they must be eliminated.
• According to Lenin, a party (i.e. the Communist Party) is a well-organised group of chosen elite
intellectuals and political activists. It is said to be, a chosen group of intellectuals in the sense that
their intellectual knowledge of Marxism maintains purity of Marxian principles and ideology, and
shows the correct path to the party.

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• It is a chosen group of political activists in the sense that election processes and party training
enables them to be totally loyal to the party and a cause of revolution. This definition of Lenin is
obviously suitable for communist parties.
• According to Lenin, if the party has to play the role of vanguard of working people, then it is
essential that it must have full knowledge of revolutionary ideas and rules. The objective of the
party is to protect the interests of the proletariat. The Communist Party alone knows what is in the
interest of working people.
Six roles of Political Parties: Rob Hague
• Otto Von Kirchheimer has evolved the idea of catch-all-parties. A catch all political party is one
that works to attract voters with a wide variety of political views and ideologies. Catch-all parties
(otherwise known as big- tent parties) seek electoral support wherever they can find it, their
purpose being to govern rather than to represent.
• In Lipset and Rokkan’s formulation, the party system that emerged in European countries was the
consequence of alliances struck in the wake of critical historical events—the Reformation, the
construction of nation- states/ democratic revolutions, and the industrial revolution.
• Lipset and Rokkan claim that the political parties that emerged in Western Europe during the end
of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century were formed on the base of these structural
cleavages in societies and the same continue to persist giving rise to 'frozen party systems’ in
western Europe.

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• In comparison to the developed countries, there is far more fluidity in third world countries as far
as parties and their social bases are concerned.
• Party Loyalty and Party System Change: Alignment, Realignment, Dealignment- Parties may
persist over time, and the party system alignment may be stable. There are several possible reasons
for this:
o The social cleavages around which a party was built may persist.
o Voters may grow up in a stable party system and be socialized to support one or another
party. Studies show that when a new cleavage line emerges in party alignment, it begins
with the youngest generations.
o Parties may become organizationally entrenched and difficult to dislodge. They may be
able to "steal" the new parties' issues and absorb or co-opt their constituencies, or they may
be able to stress other issues that distract voters from the new issues.
• However, newly emerging cleavage structures may overwhelm these inertial tendencies. The party
system may respond in three ways to new social cleavages. The first two are processes of party
"realignment":
o New parties may be formed to appeal to the new constituencies.
o Existing parties may change their policies to appeal to new constituencies.
• If neither of these changes occurs, there may be a period of "dealignment" in which much of the
population—especially new constituencies—is alienated from all parties, and turnout or political
participation declines.
• New constituencies may organize themselves into pressure groups or social movements that fail
either to form new parties or to capture existing parties.
• Existing parties may become internally more heterogeneous and polarized, single-issue actions
may proliferate, referenda may increase, and citizen action groups may simply bypass parties.
Duverger’s classification of political parties

• Branch Type:
o Democratic with a central organization;
o Local and provincial branches;
• Cadre Type:
o Centralised leadership;
o Discipline oriented;

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• Cell Type:
o Pertains mainly to Left parties.
• Militia Type:
o Armed wings
• Another classification is offered by Blondel on the basis of not just the number of parties, but the
vote share they receive:
o Two Party system;
o Two and a half party system;
o Multiparty system with a dominant party;
o Multiparty system without a dominant party.
Hitchner and Levine’s Classification of political parties

• Hitchner and Levine classified contemporary political parties into three categories.
• These are :
o pragmatic parties;
o doctrinal parties and;
o interest parties.
• Pragmatic parties -Pragmatic parties are normally not committed to any particular ideology. Their
policies are adjusted according to the requirements of situations. Most of these parties are usually
influenced more by the leader of the day and less by the party ideology.
• The American parties, the British Conservative Party (and now even the Labour Party), Canada’s
Conservatives, India’s Congress Party and Australia’s Conservative party all come in this category.
It is believed that the parties are more pragmatic in the two-party systems. This is so because they
have to represent, from time to time, different socioeconomic interests
Hitchner and Levine’s Classification

• Doctrinal parties-The parties that are committed to a particular ideology and believe in certain
principles may be described as the doctrinal parties. The policies are often changed or adjusted
according to domestic or international environmental changes, but their ideologies remain
unaltered. Socialist parties may be included in this category.
• These, for example, are: the British Labour party, the Socialist parties of Belgium and France,
United Socialist Party of Chile, or Komei of Japan. It is not that the left-oriented parties alone are
doctrinal in nature. There can be even parties of the right in liberal democracies that fall in this
category.

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• For example, the Bharatiya Janata Party in India has a definite ideology, but since 1998 it made
several adjustments in its policies and programmes to be able to adjust with its coalition partners.
On another extreme, the Communist parties and the Fascists are totally doctrinal parties
• Interest parties-According to Hitchner and Levine, many of the parties in the multiparty system
and smaller parties even in the two-party system generally represent particular interests. Thus,
these may be described as ‘interest-oriented’ parties.
• When an interest group converts itself into a party, either temporarily or permanently, it comes in
this category. Nature of interests may vary from prohibition-related, to those working for farmers’
interests, or those seeking interests of a caste or community.
• The Swiss Farmers’ Party, the German Greens, the Irish Nationalist Party of the UK are some such
parties. In India, there are a number of such interest-oriented parties. These, for example, include
the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Peasants and Workers Party of Maharashtra, or even the Bahujan
Samaj Party committed to the upliftment of the dalits.
Models of party systems

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Criticism of the political parties
• In recent years the party system has become the object of
much criticism almost everywhere
o Firstly, under this system the perpetual struggle for

political power turns the legislature into a battle
field and in the process national interests are
ignored.
o Secondly, it encourages insincerity as specious

issues are often raised to divert public attention.
o Thirdly, parties tend to become autonomous in the sense that principles and national
interests are subordinated for the sake of winning elections.
o Fourthly, parties unnecessarily extend national political issues to local elections.
o Fifthly, the practice of rewarding party members, known as the spoils system in the US,
constitutes a dereliction from principles.
o Sixthly, "party spirit is accused of debasing the moral standards", as scruples are sacrificed
at the altar of party interest.
o Seventhly, as parties have to mobilize funds for contesting elections, they have to reward
the donor after winning the elections leading to corruption.
o Finally, parties are often run by leaders and their small cliques in the name of masses
thereby frustrating the will of the people for better government and lacking inner party
democracy.
Scholarly criticism of the political parties

• Robert Michels, in his formulation of the “iron law of oligarchy,” on the basis of studying
parties in western democracies and socialist states argues that political parties and other
membership organizations inevitably tend toward oligarchy, authoritarianism, and bureaucracy.
• Similarly ,Colin Crouch in his book ‘Coping with Post-Democracy’ argues that, three forms of
interlinked change have reduced the capacity for ordinary people to participate; they are
characterized here as :
o agenda-setting (Agenda is set by the party independently of the people’s views),
o party organization(Dominated by elites) and
o communication(One-way, top to bottom).

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• As per E. E. Schattschneider, countries in many regions of the world have experienced decreases
in political party influence in terms of declining membership, voter turnout, and party system
stability. Of greatest concern, Europe—the region in which political parties were born and best
institutionalized—has shown some of the clearest and most negative indicators.
• If we speak of India, Yogendra Yadav has given the idea Institutionalization and
Deinstitutionalization of Parties. Yadav argues that the membership of the parties in gross
numbers might be increasing but their connect with the grassroots is constantly declining.
Parties have turned into electoral machines.

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Party Systems
• Party system of a particular country depends on the number of parties having systemic relevance.
By focusing on the number, variety, and roles of parties, the structure of a party system helps us
understand how they interact with one another, and the impact of their interactions on the
countries they govern.
• Maurice Duverger tries to draw a relationship between kinds of electoral systems and the party
systems they may lead to. Duverger's law holds that single-ballot plurality-rule elections (such as
first past the post) structured within single-member districts tend to favour a two-party system.
• Duverger also asserted that proportional representation favours multi- partism, as does the
plurality system with runoff elections. Duverger did not regard this principle as absolute,
suggesting instead that plurality would act to delay the emergence of new political forces and
would accelerate the elimination of weakening ones, whereas proportional representation would
have the opposite effect.Classification of party system
• G. Almond’s classification follows the following pattern:
o Authoritarian Parties. One of its sub-categories is called totalitarian parties or dictatorships;
o Dominant Non-Authoritarian (democratic) parties;
o Competitive two parties; and
o Competitive multi-parties.
• James Jupp accepted the above classification generally, but modified it and gave his own version,
which is as under:
o Indistinct (not very clear) bi-partisan system;
o Distinct bi-partisan system;
o Multi-party system;
o Dominant (one-party) party system;
o Broad one-party system;
o Narrow one-party system; and
o Totalitarian system.

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• According to Hitchner & Levine, modern party system may be classified as under:
o Competitive two-party systems;
o Competitive multi-party systems;
o Dominant non-authoritarian systems;
o Authoritarian party systems; and
o States without party system.
• Duverger broadly divided all the party systems into two. These are
o pluralistic party systems and
o one-party systems and dominant party systems.
• In the first category Duverger included:
o Multi-party systems; and
o Two-party systems.
• In the second category Duverger included
o One-party systems; and
o Dominant party systems.

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Different types of party systems and their features

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Two-party system vs multiparty system

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Party system in Developed World

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• The party system in developing countries are much more diverse and complex especially given
the myriad of political systems that are very different from the western liberal democracies.
• The rise and influence of socialism also impacted several countries in the third world giving rise to
ideological hegemon one part- communist party.
• Even in electoral democracies in the developing world such as Brazil, Mexico, India, there are
issues regarding institutionalization of political parties and legitimacy crisis that many of them
come to encounter.
• One also finds the impact of independence struggle against colonial rule reflected in their political
parties which are often the bearers of that legacy.
• Another major feature is the persistence of personality factors as well as identity politics at play
which further shape democratic politics therein.

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Coalitions and Democracy

• Oversized grand-coalition governments also have ambiguous effects on liberal democracy. The
most important theory is Lijphart's model of "consociational democracies," plural societies with
high levels of intercommunal conflict.
• In such polities, parties are unwilling to go into opposition because they risk losing too much and
because party strength—closely tied to the size of the ascriptive communities—changes too slowly
to make their return to office likely.
• Thus, formal opposition could lead to more extreme conflict. The alternative is a grand coalition
government of all major parties, combined with a degree of federalism and proportional allocation
of state services according to party or community size.

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Pressure Groups
Pressure groups and their classification
• Pressure groups/ Interest groups are bodies which seek to influence public policy from outside the
formal structures of government. They do this through a combination of direct pressure on
government and the bureaucracy, and indirect pressure via the media and public opinion.
• David B. Truman defines an pressure/ interest group as "a shared attitude group that makes
certain claims upon the other groups in the society."
• They are a crucial channel of communication between society and government, especially in
democracies. According to Gabriel Almond, they perform the function of interest articulation.
According to Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell, converting the demands into policy
alternatives is interest aggregation. In this process also, pressure groups play a significant role in
terms of identifying possible policy alternatives or options.
• Pressure groups are the representation of homogeneous interests seeking influence. The interest
group is strong and effective when it has a directed specific purpose. Political parties, on the other
hand, seeking office and directed towards policy decisions, combine heterogeneous groups.
• Finer has characterised pressure groups as 'anonymous empire'. Richard D. Lambert views it as
unofficial government.
o These groups influence both public policy as well as administration.
o They also contribute towards determination of political structure of society and the form
of government.
Political parties v/s pressure groups

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Approaches to study pressure groups

• The pluralist approach- which was originally advanced by Arthur Bentley in the early twentieth
century.
• Bentley saw group activity as essential to the political process, his approach being summarised in
the observation that ‘when the groups are adequately stated, everything is stated’.
• Similar views were developed and expounded at length by David Truman. According to Truman
and subsequent pluralists, pressure groups were an entirely natural, and healthy, feature of
political life. They benefited the political system in various ways:
o Their preoccupations reflect those of ordinary people who are entitled to air their views:
o They provide informed views and specialist expertise about issues of concern.
o They allow minority voices to be well articulated, helping to achieve a necessary balance in a
democracy between minority and majority rights.
o They cater for the representation of a heterogeneous population, allowing organisation of

diverse views.
o They prevent any single group from exercising disproportionate influence through
competition.
The pluralist approach

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• Robert Dahl argued that major decisions in US politics emerged as a result of negotiation between
competing groups. These groups served to defend the individual from government and to
promote democratic responsiveness.
• Galbraith talked about the idea of ‘countervailing powers’. In his view, the success of one strong
group – big business, for instance – inspired rival interests, labour or the consumers, to match its
efforts so that rough balance was naturally achieved.
• It stresses that there are no barriers to the formation of groups and no single group monopolises
political resources.
• The government may take advice from, groups in making and implementing their policies. Groups
are recognised as having sectional interests, however, and accorded no special favours.
• Numerous groups compete for influence over a responsible government which holds the ring,
‘more umpire than player’. For all of the reasons outlined, pluralist writers believe pressure far
from posing any form of threat, their existence serves to enhance democracy. Indeed, they are ‘the
very stuff of the democratic process.
• By the 1970s, a more critical and qualified form of pluralism was beginning to emerge. Charles
Lindblom highlighted the strong, dominant position that big business holds in Western
democracies, seeing it as undermining their claims to be as wholesomely democratic as they
would wish others to believe.
• Some subsequent commentators have similarly doubted the view that competition prevent any
group from achieving undue influence. They acknowledge a stronger role for government in
relation to group activity, accepting that today it is not so much an umpire between opposing
groups as an active participant in group politics, conferring status on some of them so that in any
country there are some who are winners and others losers.
• Dahl himself adjusted his earlier theories to become an exponent of neo-pluralism, accepting the
disproportionate power of some groups and recognising a stronger role for government in relation
to groups than he had previously accepted.
The corporatist approach

• As a theory, corporatism is a means of incorporating organised interests into the process of
government.
• Corporatism is difficult to describe for the term is used differently by many of those who claim to
adhere to it. Its meaning can range from the institutional involvement of interest groups with the
state to a much weaker version involving bargaining between the state, employers and
employees about the conduct of economic and social policy, often known as tripartism
• In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a broad drift towards corporatist thinking and practice in several
European countries.

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• Critics portray corporatism as overly reminiscent of Mussolini’s Fascist-dominated Italian state in
which consultation was enforced by government decree and the role of the legislature reduced to
near impotence.
• They regard corporatism as inherently unhealthy, a threat to representative democracy.
• They see Parliament as the place where conflicts should be resolved. Whereas pluralism involves
groups supplementing the democratic process, corporatism sees decisions being taken in closed
locations, beyond the means of public scrutiny and democratic accountability.
Corporate vs pluralists
• The pluralist versus corporatist debate is central to democratic politics for it sets out the framework
for discussion of society and the state.
• Hague and Harrop put it well: ‘Pluralists see society dominating the state: corporatists view the
state as leading society . . . the debate reflects contrasting views of the proper role of government.
• Pluralists see the state’s task as responding to interests expressed to it. Corporatists, by contrast,
favour an organised, integrated society in which the state offers leadership in pursuit of a vision
shared with society.
The New Right approach

• In the late 1970s and 1980s, the New Right developed a different view of group activity. Its
exponents questioned the value of Pressure Groups in democratic life, portraying them as sectional
bodies primarily concerned with advancing their own interests rather than those of society at large.
• In particular, they expressed alarm about the role and power of some groups. They noted the
preponderance of producer interests (employers and employees) and their easy access to
government.
• In comparison, the viewpoint of consumers, taxpayers and promotional groups was neglected.
Adherents of the New Right were more generally doubtful of the benign influence of groups for
they saw them as distorting the proper role of the executive and legislature.
• Anti-corporatists of the New Right school were much influenced by the thinking of Mancur Olson.
Their preferred model is based on individualist and market-based ideas, its adherents admiring
entrepreneurs and self-reliant adventurers and being disdainful of social groups and collective
bodies. In this spirit, during the Reagan and Thatcher years the United States and Britain both
embarked on deregulation of the economy and – in Britain – the dismantling of corporatist
institutions.

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The Marxist approach
• A very different analysis has been provided by members of the radical Left. They see real control in
society as being exercised by the ruling economic group that takes decisions to serve its own
interests. As the owners of productive wealth, they control the levers of political power.
• For Marx, the state was ‘nothing but an executive committee for the bourgeoisie’ and under
capitalism the dominant groups – primarily business interests – rule to their own advantage,
exploiting the bulk of society in the process and perpetuating the existence of gross inequality.
• Whether the system of group activity was described as pluralist or corporatist, in either case the
dominant ruling group in the power structure would prevail.
• Marxists draw attention to the unequal distribution of power between employers and employees,
pointing out that business interests exercise disproportionate influence.
• They control economic resources, possess status and access to government. Trade unions lack such
power, status and access. Moreover, in any case they tend to accept and work within the capitalist
system, as long as it enables them to achieve some modest benefits.
Classification of Pressure Groups

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Maurice Duverger distinguishes between

• First basis- Functioning:
o Exclusive Groups: These are those groups whose only function is to put pressure on the
political system. There are several groups in the United States who are whole-time in the
business of pressure politics, through the device of lobbying.
o Partial Groups in the first category: On the other hand, these are essentially set up to be the
promoters of interests of their members, but in that process do occasionally use pressure
tactics. There are numerous such partial groups in every democratic country including Britain
and India.
• Second basis- Nature:
o Private Groups: These are private institution groups had begun to use pressure on the state
apparatus.
o Public Groups: Gradually, even official or public groups also joined in the process of pressure
politics. The official groups may even include those officials who secretly align themselves
with one or more pressure groups to serve certain interests.
• Duverger also refers to, what he calls pseudo-pressure groups. These groups include specialists
who use pressure politics not for themselves, but for others. This is often done for monetary
consideration. Duverger includes in this category, the technical experts as well as information
(mass) media.
Classification of pressure groups

• Finer in his book anonymous empire divided them into eight types:
• The business lobby • The Co-operative Movement
• The labour lobby • The professions

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• Civic groups • The churches and evangelical groups
• Special sections of the population • Educational, recreational and cultural

groups
• Benewick had tried to distinguish pressure groups in a different way by discerning three groups,
each of which was characterized by the kind of relationship it had with government.
• There were:
o Those well-resourced groups seen as legitimate by government with which they had a stable
and continuous relationship (the first world).
o Groups not short of resources or devoid of legitimacy which had less frequent contact with
government (the second world).
o Groups not perceived as legitimate by government and which did not benefit from the kind
of access accorded to the first two groups. Inevitably, these were seen as exerting less
influence on government policy (the third world).
• Grant divides groups according to whether they are insider or outsider ones.
o Insider groups are regarded as legitimate players and are regularly consulted by government,
having good – almost ‘cosy’ – access to the corridors of power.
o Outsider groups either do not want access or legitimacy, or are unable to attain such
recognition. They are obliged to take a more public route in their search for influence.
• Many, but not all, protective groups are insider bodies and have consultative status. In most cases,
promotional groups are outsider organisations, campaigning against the political mainstream.
• In their recent study, Newton and Van Deth distinguish between the vast range of voluntary
groups by dividing them into three categories:
o Episodic groups which are not usually in any way concerned with public issues and seek to
avoid them because involvement may be contentious and divisive. A local football team falls
into this category. Only if its main amenity, its pitch, is threatened by some development is it
likely to be involved in lobbying,
o Fire brigade groups are established to contest a particular issue. They fade away when the
cause is won or lost.
o Political groups (such as trade unions and business associations and many other associations,
including campaigning environmental groups, health and welfare groups) are set up to operate
in the political arena but engage in other non-political work as well.

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• Finally, in his study of the British political system, Moran recognises that no classification can be
definitive. Having alluded to the traditional distinction between interest groups whose members
share a common interest and groups that promote a cause, he tries to capture the differences
between them by using his own preferred terms.
• Functional groups: all those groups which ‘reflect the occupational and industrial specialisation by
which our economy operates’. They include groups whose members are individuals (e.g. the BMA)
and those whose membership comprises organisations (e.g. the CBI). These groups represent
people and institutions that perform functions vital to social and economic life’.
• Preference groups refer to those associations that are ‘united by some set of common preferences’.
Their range is potentially infinite for people may share a common interest in anything form
religious affiliation to gay rights. Preference groups cut across the functional category in that they
include people who have different functional interests.
Pressure groups and democracy

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Question: Political parties and pressure groups are the sine qua non of democracy. Comment. (2021)
Answer:
• Describe what are political parties and pressure groups
• Elaborate why they are important for democracies
• Mention some concerns associated with them
• Conclude
What Are Political Parties?

• Edmund Burke → set of people who would come together because of common ideology and
similar notion of national interest.
o Otto Von Kircheimer → Today parties are not concerned with ideology but aim to capture
maximum support possible (‘catch all parties’)
• Max Weber → political parties are powerhouses whose aim is to capture power.
What Are Pressure Groups?

• If political parties perform the role of interest aggregation, pressure groups do interest
articulation.
• Pressure groups are called invisible empires (Samuel Finer). Pressure groups do not compete for
the formal posts yet they may be influencing the government's decision making to a significant
extent.
• In Indian context Rajni Kothari calls pressure groups as ‘non-party political processes’
Political Parties and Democracy

• According to Zoya Hasan, political parties are the ‘keystone political institution in representative
regime’ because they perform vital functions necessary for healthy functioning of a democracy.
Some functions include →
• Interest Aggregation: They put up candidates, canvass support for them, and if voted to power
they govern the state for the specific period. In other words they perform the essential input
function known as ‘interest aggregation’.
• Political choice: A/q to Paul Webb, parties also offer citizenry a meaningful degree of choice
between and control over political elites and are important in building civic & political orientations
in the country through their ideology & programmes.
• Feedback and input: Political parties are two-way communications that bind citizens to the policy-
makers. ← Herman Finer
• Public Opinion: Political parties not only form government & offer opposition but also create
public opinion and act as a source of political education modernization ← W.B Munro
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Pressure Groups and Democracy
• Pluralistic theory of democracy puts importance on the study of pressure groups. e.g. Robert Dahl,
on the basis of the role of pressure groups in liberal democracies, preferred to call these
democracies as ‘polyarchies’.
• Like political parties, pressure groups are also vital for functioning of a democracy as they perform
important functions such as
o Role in legislature – they try to introduce their chosen person in legislature
o Electoral Process - assist in preparing election manifesto
o Political parties change but pressure groups remain for protecting people's concern and
raising issues.
o They act as a check against concentration of power
o They bring diverse views to fore front ie multiculturalism
o Pressure groups give a political voice to minority groups - Women’s organisations such as
SEWA, NCW have campaigned for women-friendly laws such as the Protection of Women
from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
• However, there are some Concerns associated with parties and pressure groups
o Since at least the 1990s, observers like Ignazi Piero, Russel Dalton, and Martin Wattenberg
have noted a declining role for political parties in long-standing democracies, and Thomas
Carothers in 2006 found widespread public dissatisfaction with political parties in the countries
that experienced the “third wave” of democratisation from the 1970s through the 1990
o Leaders like George Washington were critical of political parties, arguing that parties go for
factionalism & are a threat to national unity. Similarly, leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, M.N.
Roy & J.P. Narayan favoured 'party less democracy’.
o Pressure Groups can also be a source of deformed polyarchy (Charles Lindblom) wherein
depending on their economic might they may highjack the working of the state.
o Nexus between pressure groups and political parties can often lead to issues of corruption,
bribery and undermining of democratic processes.
Comparison of Indian and Western PGs

• India and Western countries are democracies.. India though a parliamentary democracy differs
from such countries of the West in terms of developmental levels. Therefore, there are some
differences in the role of pressure groups:
• Firstly, the American pressure groups are regarded as the fourth organ of the government but the
Indian pressure groups are not yet able to play such significant role in politics.

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• Secondly, in India and Great Britain the cabinet and civil service are the main targets of pressure
groups for lobbying purposes rather than the parliament. However, the targets of American
pressure groups are the Congress and its committees rather than the President for lobbying
purposes.
• Thirdly, Indian pressure groups based on caste, religion, region, etc. are more powerful than the
modern groups like business organisations.
• Fourthly, a significant feature of American pressure groups is that in the USA pressure groups
take interest in foreign policy issues while mostly in India pressure groups do not seem to have
interest in foreign policy matters. Comparatively, the Indian pressure groups are concerned more
with domestic policy issues and problems, and less with foreign policy matters.

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Social Movements
• Social Movements are parts of social progression. These phenomena represent varieties of
collective actions across time and space. As social processes social movements emerge as
manifestation of collective discontent against the established social, economic and political
orders.
• Social movements have broadly been perceived as ‘organized’ or ‘collective effort’ to bring about
changes in the thought, beliefs, values, attitudes, relationships and major institutions in society or
to resist any change in the above societal arrangements.
Different meanings of social movements

• Around the mid-nineteenth century, the term ‘social movement’ was used in two ways:
o First, it referred to fundamental changes of society, for example the passage from
feudalism to capitalism.
o Second, a social movement was understood as a collective actor, and especially a class
actor in society.
• In the following decades, the second meaning became dominant, though it was no longer bound to
a specific collective actor, notably the socialist/communist movement.
• Rather, it referred to a variety of groupings engaged, for example, in abolishing slavery, enhancing
women’s rights, securing peace, or promoting nationalism and xenophobia.
• Only in the second half of the twentieth century was the term ‘social movement’ more clearly
delineated and thereby separated from diffuse public moods and discourses on the one hand and,
on the other hand, more specific collective phenomena such as non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) or political campaigns limited in scope and time.
• According to a gradually emerging scholarly consensus, a social movement can be defined by four
constitutive elements:
o It is a mobilized network of groups and organizations;
o resting on a sense of collective identity;
o that aims to bring about or resist fundamental changes of society;
o by using primarily techniques of public and collective protest.

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• M.S.A. Rao defined social movement as a ‘sustained collective mobilization through either
informal or formal organization or which is generally oriented towards bringing about change’.
o Social movements involves:
▪ Collective mass mobilization;
▪ Collective mass support;
▪ Formal or informal organization;
▪ A conscious commitment towards its aims and beliefs;
▪ Deliberative collective action towards change;
According to Touraine social movements have three important functions

• Mediation: They help to relate the individual to the larger society. They give each person a chance
to participate, to express his ideas and to play a role in the process of social change.
• Pressure: Social movements stimulate the formation of organised groups that work systematically
to see that their plans and policies are implemented.
• Clarification of Collective Consciousness: This is a significant function. Social movements

generate and develop ideas which spread throughout society. As a result, group consciousness
arises and grows.
Functions of social movements

• As per Dieter Rucht, Social movements can fulfil strikingly different functions as:
o destructive troublemakers [e.g., bloody events in Rwanda in 1994 have shown];
o indicators of neglected or unsolved problems [e.g., movement against abortion and yellow
vest movement in France];
o promoters of new and valuable ideas [the movement against nuclear energy production.];
o challengers of power elites and forces of regime change;
o and agents of broader and deeper societal changes. [e.g., Fall of communist regimes in
Eastern Europe];
• Andre Gunder Frank and Marta Fuentes make a distinction between social and political
movements. According to them, the former does not strive for state power. According to these
authors, the objective of social movement is social transformation. The participants get mobilised
for attaining social justice.
• In developed countries, after the World War II the philosophy of the ‘welfare state’ was widely
accepted all over the world. As a result, conflicts between labour and capital were recognised as
legitimate collective social behaviour in the modern society. They were materialist, revolving
around issues of bread and butter.
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• The established social and the political order of Europe and America received a severe jolt in late
1950s and 1960s with the vehement outburst of the Black civil rights, students, women’s, peace,
gay and environment etc. The ‘post-industrial movements engage different actors, different loci
of conflict and different issues than those of the industrial society. These were influenced by
scholars like Herbert Marcuse of critical school.
• Social movements in the developing countries were manifested in different socio-political

contexts. Anti-colonial, workers and the peasant movements were the dominant patterns of
collective actions with a wide political connotation in built in these movements.
• In a state of increasing poverty, illiteracy, corruption and sharpening class inequality a vast section
of the population has accepted organised collective action as a mode of protest and survival.
• However, in the wake socio political transition, globalisation and introduction to new economic
order in these countries the forms of collective action have undergone a qualitative change
leading to two major typological orientations in the themes on movement studies- Old and New
Social Movements.

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• According to Calhoun , the typified image of the old movements reflects a phase of maturity, while
the image of the new movements reflects a phase of infancy. He argues that characteristics ascribed
to the new movements can be found in the early days of the old movement.
Emergence of new identity

• Since late 1960s and onward, especially after the proliferation of the students, Green Peace, Black
Civil Rights, women’s etc movements in the United States and Western Europe efforts are made to
comprehend and analyze the emerging processes of new collective identify formation in the social
movements and the guiding principles towards these formations.
• It has been widely realized that it is not merely the empirical and the economic class position,
but rather the issue of values, culture, subjectivity, morality, empowerment etc played crucial
roles towards the formation of new collective identities in these movements.
• Eyerman and Jamison assert that ‘by articulating consciousness, social movement provides public
spaces for generating new thoughts, activating new actors, generating new ideas. Thus, by
producing new knowledge, by reflecting on their own cognitive identity, by saying what they
stand for, by challenging the dominant assumptions of the social order, social movements develop
new ideas those are fundamental to the process of human creativity.
• It is important that in the context of transformation of a social movements new identities do

emerge from within the old ones. For example in the process of sustained mobilisation of the
peasantry in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh new identities have emerged in these peasant
societies in the form of gender, ethnicity and caste identities.
Autonomy of New Identity

• Scholars have identified new social movement’s ideology with freedom and life. In this context the
notion of autonomy is crucial. There are several dimensions to this issue:
o Personal autonomy: ‘Psycho-social practices, such as consciousness arising within the

women’s movement, have had at least one of their aims - the liberation of individual
women from personal and ideological barriers to personal freedom through the
reconstruction of their life histories and by making them aware of personal oppressions,
while at the same time stressing their potential power as women’.
o Extension of Personal and Group Autonomy: ‘The narrowly defined political aims of these
movements are comprehended as an extension of personal and group autonomy by
challenging several restrictions on freedom’. Thus, the arguments for free abortions on
demand can be viewed as a way of increasing a women’s freedom to make choices
concerning her own body, of removal or gender or racial discrimination at work as
extending of range of individual or collective freedom enjoyed by group members’

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o Autonomy struggle: Autonomy struggle of the new social movements demands that the
representatives of these movements be allowed to fight their own “without interference
from other movements and without subordinating their demands to other external
priorities’. These aspects of autonomy are closely linked.
Criticism of NSM
• Some sociologists, like Paul Bagguley and Nelson Pichardo, criticize NSM theory for a number of
reasons, including:
o the movements concerned with non-materialistic issues existed (in one extent or another)
during the industrial period and traditional movements, concerned with economic
wellbeing, still exist today,
o there are few unique characteristics of the new social movements, when compared to the
traditional movements,
o differences between older and newer movements have been explained by older theories,
o there is doubt in terms of whether contemporary movements are specifically a product of

post-industrial society,
o NSM focuses almost exclusively on left-wing movements and does not consider right-
wing,

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o the term “new middle class” is amorphous and not consistently defined, and
o might be better viewed as a certain instance of social movement theory rather than a
brand new one..
There are some other categorisation of social movements put forward by various
scholars
• M. S. A. Rao makes a distinction between three types of social movements:
o Reformist: These movements, according to Rao, bring about partial changes in the value-
paradigm of society.
o Transformative: These usher in middle level social structural changes.
o Revolutionary: movements, on the other hand, bring about radical changes in the totality
of social and cultural systems of society.
• P.N. Mukherjee makes a threefold classification based on nature and direction of movement:
o Transformative movement: When collective mobilization aims at effecting wide- ranging

and far-reaching changes of a system.
o Alterative movement: Seeks to change a structure by eliminating (or adding) an existing

structure within it.
o Quasi Movement: When it aims for changes within a system only it may be called a quasi-
movement.
Approaches to Social Movements

• Marxist Approach:
o According to the Marxist approach class conflict is the central core of social movements
associating them with materialist issues. Scholars like Tilly and Skocpol view capitalism as
the cause for collective direct action and the chief hurdle to freedom.
o Recently a group of Marxist historians, the ‘Subaltern Studies’ group, has begun to study
‘history from below’. Subaltern scholars like Ranajit Guha argue that the traditional Marxist
scholars have undermined cultural factors and viewed a linear development of class
consciousness.
o According to Sumit Sarkar, the spontaneous unrest like the looting of hats, tribal
movements, kisan movements, and so on often tended to remain autonomous, scattered
and remained mostly outside the ambit of the mainstream nationalist movement in colonial
India.
• Structure-Functionalist Approach:
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o Other scholars who adhere to the theory of political development consider that when rising
aspirations of the people are not adequately met by existing political institutions which
are rigid or incompetent, social movements happen. Rajni Kothari mentions this in context
of India in 1960’s.
• Gandhian Approach:
o Gandhians advocated a need for resistance of those who are the victims and suffer against
injustice. The method of resistance was satyagraha i.e satya (truth) and agraha (insistance,
holding firmly). Bondurant has called this approach the “Gandhian dialectic.” Satyagraha
was a dialectical process where non-violent action (antithesis) engages existing structures of
power (thesis) in a truth-seeking struggle leading to a more just and truthful relationship
(synthesis).
Resource Mobilisation Theory

• Resource Mobilisation theory is an outcome of rational choice theory. It is based on the assumption
that individuals’ actions are motivated by goals that express their preferences. They view
rational attempts to mobilise resources in pursuit of “politics by other means” - hence driven by
people with resources, embedded in stable network.
• As Jenkins visualises, the mobilisation of men in contemporary social movements involves the
use of large-scale, advanced communication techniques, bureaucratised organisation and
utilitarian drives and initiatives- Greenpeace, Amnesty International etc.
Political process and political structure approach

• Another strand of theorizing gaining prominence was associated with the terms ‘political process’
and ‘political opportunity structure’. These concepts are not identical, but overlap and complement
each other. The political process approach as put forward mainly by Doug McAdam and
Hanspeter Kriesi stresses the dynamics of interaction between social movements and their
environment.
• This perspective also sheds light on what earlier theorists, though mainly in mechanistic ways,
have coined (natural) social movement life cycles. In the more empirical grounded lens of the
political process approach, the dynamics of social movement are not mainly driven by an
internally anchored developmental sequence, but rather by external conditions including the
position, resources, and strategies of movements’ opponent.
• The political opportunity structure approach, initially mainly conceptualized by Sidney Tarrow
and later expanded and refined by others, including Herbert Kitschelt, Hanspeter Kriesi, and
Dieter Rucht , focuses on enabling and restricting structural political conditions for the
emergence and further development of social movements.

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• Among such factors are, for example, the degree of openness or closeness of the political system
to challengers, the unity or division of political elites with regard to a movement’s cause, the
availability of allies that might support a movement, and the capacity of a political system to
repress a social movement. With the emphasis on political opportunities that initially were studied
by comparing mobilization and protest across US cities, the comparative lens was soon widened to
engage in cross-national comparison of specific movements (such as anti-nuclear movements,
peace movements, and women’s movements) or of broader social movement families (such as the
so-called new social movements surging in the 1970s and ’80.
Relative Deprivation Theory

• Unlike Marxists, these scholars argue that deprivation has also non- material base e.g., status,
behaviour, worth etc. Gurr has perceived deprivation as a gap between expectations and perceived
capabilities involving three generalised sets of values: economic conditions, political power and
social status.
• Another prominent approach in social movement studies, again originating in the US, was centred
around the category of framing. It was inspired by symbolic interactionism and social
constructivism and gained prominence with the writings of David Snow and his collaborators and
William A. Gamson.
• Frames are communicative devices that give a specific meaning to a situation or process. In
social movement research, framing denotes a discursive strategy that is geared to sensitize and
activate followers and bystanders.
• According to Snow and Benford, comprehensive framing serves three goals:
o First, it delivers an interpretation of a problem and its causes and culprits (diagnostic
framing);
o second, it suggests how the problem might unfold in the future and what could be done
to mitigate or solve the problem at stake (prognostic framing);
o third, it provides reasons and motives to engage and become committed (motivational
framing).
Cultural Revitalization Theory

• As propagated by Wallace, it expresses the view that social movements are manifested out a
deliberate, organised and conscious action of the member of the society to construct a more
satisfying culture for themselves. To him, the revitalization movements undergo four phases of
progression: from cultural stability to increased individual stress to cultural distortion and
disillusionment to cultural revitalization.
Social Movements and Democracy

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• Long considered rather marginal, if not dangerous for democratic development, social movements
have been recently recognized as important players in democratization processes.
• While not all social movements are democratic, research has pointed to the leading role that some
of them have occupied in the historical development of citizens’ rights by pushing for wider
suffrage, the recognition of associational rights and social rights.
• Moreover, progressive movements have often been pivotal in triggering waves of democratization,
de- manding increased equality and protection for minorities.
Question: Comment on the decline of political parties and examine whether new social movements
shall be alternative strategies for establishing link between government and society. [2016]
Answer:
• A growing portion of the global electorate, hostile to political parties and unable or unwilling to
engage with the political system, has increasingly taken to the streets to express its grievances.
• The work of Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan has shown that the 2010s are on track to
experience more episodes of nonviolent mass mobilization than any decade since World War II.
• More recent examples from either side of the Atlantic would suggest that the influence of political
parties has continued to decline. Pierre Rosanvallon has termed it the emergence of post-
representative moment.
• Empirically, E. E. Schattschneider’s Global data show countries in many regions of the world
have experienced decreases in political party influence in terms of declining membership, voter
turnout, and party system stability.
• Pew Research surveys, EUI’s V-Dem report and others underline the growing dissatisfaction across
regions with the health of democracy leading to rise of protests as well as anti-establishment
leaders. Various factors include:
• Economic discontent and democratic dissatisfaction: In Europe, the Southern European countries
of Portugal, Spain, and Greece experienced a significant increase in protests from 2008-2012. It was
there that governments, with their policy options severely restricted by EU membership and
Eurozone policies. The mass protests in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of their financial crises in 2022
also points to the same.
• Individual rights and democratic performance: The Arab Spring movement against dictatorial
governments since 2010, Black Lives Matter movement in USA since 2013, the anti CAA protests in
India in 2019-20, the protests for women and human rights in Iran in 2022 all point to the failure of
existing parties and political system to address these issues.

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• Frustration with politicians: 2018 survey by Pew also showed how attitudes toward politicians
also influence the degree to which people are satisfied or dissatisfied with the performance of their
country’s democracy. For instance, dissatisfaction is pervasive among people who see politicians as
uncaring and out of touch.
Factors of Decline of political parties

• Rise of niche parties: Nice party is a party which appeals to a narrow section of the electorates,
usually highlighting non-economic issues like religion and caste. For examples in Germany the rise
of Greens. In India these parties are on a rampant rise like AIMIM. They fail to represent well-
defined social interests and cut off the mass participation.
• Crisis of representation- According to Mainwaring, A ‘crisis of representation’ is characterized by

unstable patterns of representation and citizens who believe that they are not well represented.
Telling examples come from Latin America in the 1990s and early 2000s but also, more recently,
from Southern Europe in the early 2010s.
• Identity politics – The rise of identity politics has led to a de-facto presidential form of government
in India. Rather than party, charismatic authority of a leader becomes pull fact for people to vote.
• Globalisation - Rampant globalisation has led to more transparency and accountability among the
public. This has exposed the grim reality of corruption, dynastic politics and role of money and
muscle power in functioning of political parties. The Cambridge analytica issue exposed the same
with regard to parties in USA, UK and India.
• Declining political trust and rising dissatisfaction- Thomas Carothers found widespread public
dissatisfaction with political parties in the countries that experienced the “third wave” of
democratization from the 1970s through the 1990s.
New Social movements as an alternative

• Mobilisation for attaining social justice- Andre Gunder
Frank and Marta Fuentes held that the objective of social
movement is social transformation. The participants get
mobilised for attaining social justice. For example Me too
movement.
• These movements raised questions which were basically cultural and humanistic and about quality
of life-nuclear disarmament, LGBT, women issues, environmentalism – Middle class associated.
• The Green wave movement that began in Argentina in 2018, spread across Latin America leading
to abortion rights across the continent including in Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico.

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• Building new leaders: Social movements have also allowed
breaking of parties’ hierarchies to create grassroot leaders- Arvind
Kejriwal in India, Gabriel Boric in Chile who was one of the
leaders of 2011 student protests.
• New platform of representation - New Social Movements (NSM)

are the reflections of a new ‘representation of society
characterised by post-capitalism, post-industrialism and post-
materialism’ while political parties and leaders were seen as
turning a deaf ear to these existing demands.
• Such movements were seen as emerging on both left- and right-wing issues. For example, the rise
of Make America Great Again movement including predominantly white conservative population
with views on gun rights, charities, pro police, anti-lockdown, pro-life, and “stop the steal.”
• Failure of political parties in tackling burning issues - Social movements will always be a part of
society as long as there are aggrieved populations whose needs and interests are not being
satisfied. Be it the rising unemployment, toppling inflation or the curtailment of freedom of speech
and expression, the political parties failed to perform on these aspects.
Complementary role of both

• According to Herbert P. Kitschelt, in democracies, political parties and social movements fulfill
similar functions in that they both are key actors in the process of democratic representation.
• They both contribute to articulating citizens’ demands and preferences, as well as to decision-
making by aggregating preferences and by providing information. In a well-functioning
democracy, they may play complementary roles in the representation of interests.
• Political parties offer political programs and participate in elections in order to gain access to
government and to implement them. Social movements seize new demands that remain
unanswered by institutional actors and articulate them in the non-electoral channels of the public
sphere.
• New Social Movements may in fact provide basis for new parties to come up based on people’s
demands adding to diversity of party system for example the rise of AAP in India from Anti-
Corruption movement, Women’s Party in New Zealand etc,
• In other domains, active social movements can provide resources and backing to important
candidates/ political parties that can provide an alternative in formal institutions such as Bancada
Activista in Brazil.
• Revitalizing political parties would serve to both improve democratic accountability and
democratic resilience. Parties themselves have the biggest opportunity to halt their own decline by
more directly engaging members in substantive internal deliberation.

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• The Bharat Jodo Yatra by Congress in 2022 can be seen as political parties using techniques of NSM
to generate internal reform and connect to masses.
• Patrick Liddiard in Wilson Centre for Public Policy talks of Revitalisation of Political Parties:
o Greater Deliberation: political party outreach, engagement, deliberation with voters and
empowering local branches.
o Strengthening Partner Organisations: Strengthen partner organizations like labor unions,

student parties which tend to have more stable levels of electoral support.
o Dealing with Populists in the Electoral Arena and increasing intra-party democracy,
transparency and accountability.
o Compulsory Voting?
De-democratization
• Democratic waves in the world- Huntington describes three waves in his book The Third Wave:
Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Democratization waves have been linked to
sudden shifts in the distribution of power among the great powers, which creates openings and
incentives to introduce sweeping domestic reform.
o The first “slow” wave began in the early 19th century when suffrage was granted to the
majority of white males in the United States (“Jacksonian democracy”). Then came France,
Britain, Canada, Australia, Italy and Argentina, and a few others . This was reversed by the
rise of Fascism and Nazism in Europe.
o A second wave after World War II, and crested nearly 20 years later in 1962 with 36
recognised democracies in the world. The Second
wave ebbed as well at this point, and the total
number dropped to 30 democracies between 1962
and the mid-1970s. But the “flat line” would not last
for long, as the third wave was about to surge in a
way no one had ever seen.
o A third wave beginning in the mid-1970s in South

Europe, followed by Latin America and Asia. This
was followed by the fall of the Soviet
Union in Eastern Europe.

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o Experts have associated the collapse of several dictatorships in the Middle East and North
Africa, phenomenon known as Arab Spring, with fourth wave of democratization.
However, a few months after the apparent beginning of the transition, most of the Arab
political openings closed, causing an inevitable pull-back.
• Jorge Nef and Bernd Reiter in their book Democratic

challenge argue This new wave of de-democratization goes
beyond the “crisis of democracy” discussed in the Report to
the Trilateral Commission (Huntington, Crozier,
Watanuki). For all intents and purposes, numerous
empirical (benchmark) indicators of democracy in the West
highlight a common trend:
o Greater corporate and media concentration, de-

industrialization, labor atomization and decline,
the dissolution of the liberal-democratic social
contract, expanding income inequalities, declining
participation, corruption, electoral fraud, erosion of
sovereignty, and the “thinning” of human rights,
point in the direction of inequality and increasingly
oligarchic, plutocratic and authoritarian rule.
o The post 9/11 revival of aggressive national security policies, and the militarization of
domestic society and foreign policy, has furthered this tendency.
o There is also rise of political and social elites to ensure smooth and coordinated governance,
“pluto democracies” (Duverger), or plutocracies with popular support (India, the US), or
outright kleptocracies (kleptos=thieves).
o The predominant trait of contemporary democracies is one of diminishing participation

and declining opportunities for non-elite influence in the political process going hand in
hand with a dramatic increase of income and corporate and media concentration.
• Stephan Haggard and Robert R Kaufman,in their book “Backsliding: Democratic Regress in
The Contemporary World,” outline some of the key features of ‘backsliding.
o First, backsliding typically involves what we call a ‘collapse in the separation of powers’
between branches of government. Hungary, Poland and Turkey provide notable
examples.
o A second point of vulnerability is in the protection of basic political rights and civil
liberties. Without protections for the fundamental rights of speech, assembly and
association, oppositions not only face difficulties participating but can wither.

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o Protection of the media is a crucial component of this pillar of democratic rule. In most
cases, efforts to undermine its independence go beyond the demonisation of the press
practised by Trump, extending to economic pressure on news outlets such as that deployed
under Orbán in Hungary, or to more overt acts of harassment, arrests, and even murders
experienced by journalists in Turkey and Russia.
o A final key pillar—and arguably the irreducible core of

democracy – lies in the integrity of the electoral process.
Democracy is grounded in the conduct of free and fair
elections that permit ‘vertical’ accountability to voters.
Russia’s alleged role in USA’s election highlighted some
discrepancies in the electoral system which can
compromise the integrity of the same.
o Apart from above mentioned

features, coups, polarization,
acquiescent legislatures, and
incrementalism also play
defining role in democracy’s
decline.
• Larry Diamond talks of “democratic

recession” in the contemporary world.
First, there has been a significant and, in
fact, accelerating rate of democratic
breakdown since 2006.
• Second, the quality or stability of

democracy has been declining in a
number of large and strategically
important emerging-market countries,
which he call “swing states.”
• Third, authoritarianism has been

deepening, including in big and
strategically important countries.

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• And fourth, the established democracies, beginning with the United States, increasingly seem to
be performing poorly and to lack the will and self-confidence to promote democracy effectively
abroad.
• The key imperative in the near term is to work to reform and consolidate the democracies that have
emerged during the third wave. Democracy may be receding somewhat in practice, but it is still
globally ascendant in peoples’ values and aspirations.
What is Globalisation?
• Globalisation is often viewed as emergence of a complex web of
interconnectedness that means that our lives are increasingly
shaped by events that occur, and decisions that are made, at a great
distance from us.
• Scholars like Rosneau view globalisation as growing extensity,

intensity, and velocity of global interactions, which is associated
with a deepening enmeshment of the local and global. It is linked
with process of time-space compression.
• Globalisation is a general phenomenon that can include economic,

political, social, or cultural integration. There have been at least
three waves of globalization in recent history:
o One from 1450-1850 which was the age of discovery.
o Another from roughly 1870–1914, and
o The current one beginning after the Second World War but accelerating after the 1980s.
• A fourth wave of globalization may be in the making, driven by the emerging economic powers of
China, Brazil, India, and others.
• Marxist theorists including Marx himself link the emergence of globalisation with the advent of
capitalism. Lenin called imperialism the ‘highest stage of capitalism’ while Luxemberg believes in
the co-existence of capitalism, imperialism and nationalism.

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Roland Robertson phases of globalisation
Globalization has been interpreted in three main ways

• Economic globalization is the process through which national economies have, to a greater or
lesser extent, been absorbed into a single global economy. While socialist models went out of
vogue, free market, open economy became the mainstay. Neoliberalism is the norm with ideas of
interdependence (Keohane and Nye) becoming popular.
• Cultural globalization is the process whereby information, commodities and images that have
been produced in one part of the world enter into a global flow that tends to ‘flatten out’ cultural
differences between nations, regions and individuals as discussed by Buzan as
‘McDonaldisation. Particularly crucial is the role of ICT as portrayed in Marshall McLuhan's
influential work on the global village.
• Political globalization is the process through which policy- making responsibilities have been
passed from national governments to international organizations. John Burton coined the term
'cobweb model' of world politics wherein the most important patterns in world politics were those
created by trade, communications, language, ideology, etc., along with the more traditional focus
on the political relations between states.
Is Globalisation a Myth or Reality?

• The most influential attempt to outline the various positions on this globalization debate was set
out by David Held and his supporters. They distinguished between three positions:
• Hyperglobalists: The hyperglobalizers are the chief amongst ‘the believers’ in globalization.
Hyperglobalism portrays globalization as a profound, even revolutionary set of economic, cultural,
technological and political shifts that have intensified since the 1980s.

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• For them, globalization embodies a process of deterritorialization/ ‘borderless world: as social,
political, and economic activities are increasingly 'stretched' across the globe, they become in a
significant sense no longer organized solely according to a strictly territorial logic due to
technological determinism.
• Hyperglobalizers therefore have a strongly positive attitude towards globalization, usually

assuming that, in marking the triumph of markets over the state, it is associated with economic
dynamism and growing worldwide prosperity.
• Nevertheless, hyperglobalism offers an unbalanced and exaggerated view of globalization, in at

least two senses.
o First, it overstates the extent to which policy- makers have been dominated by
‘irresistible’ economic and technological forces, underestimating the importance of values,
perceptions and ideological orientations.
o Second, the images of the ‘end of sovereignty’ and the ‘twilight of the nation-state’ can be
said to feature amongst the myths of globalization.
• Sceptics: The sceptics led by scholars like Hirst and Thompson, by contrast, have portrayed
globalization as a fantasy and dismissed the idea of an integrated global economy. They do so on
the grounds that:
o By comparison with the period 1870 to 1914, the world is much less globalized
economically, politically, and culturally.
o The contemporary world is marked by intensifying geopolitics, regionalization, and

internationalization, rather than by globalization.
o The vast bulk of international economic and political activity is concentrated within the
group of OECD states.
o By comparison with the heyday of European global empires, the majority of the world's
population and countries in the South are now much less integrated into the global system.
o Geopolitics, state power, nationalism, and territorial boundaries are of growing, not
reducing, significance in world politics.
o Globalization is at best a self-serving myth or conceptual folly (according to Rosenberg)

that conceals the significance of Western capitalism and US hegemony in shaping
contemporary world politics.
o Responses to the financial crisis and Covid19 pandemic demonstrate the centrality of
hegemonic and national power to the effective functioning of the world economy.

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• One of the weaknesses of the sceptical argument is that it tends to
conflate globalization solely with economic trends: it
sometimes invokes a form of economic reductionism. Contrary
to the sceptics' view, it is crucial to appreciate that globalization is
a multidimensional process: patterns of economic globalization
and cultural globalization are neither identical nor simply
reducible to one another.
• Transformationalists: Falling between the hyperglobalizers and

the sceptics, the ‘transformationalist’ stance offers a middle road
view of globalization by scholars like Held, McGrew.
• It accepts that profound changes have taken place in the patterns

and processes of world politics without its established or
traditional features having been swept away altogether.
• If patterns of contemporary globalization are highly complex, they are also highly uneven. It
involves differential patterns of enmeshment, giving it what Castells calls its 'variable geometry’.
The rich OECD countries are much more globalized than many of the poorest sub-Saharan African
states.
Major transformations have nevertheless taken place in world politics. These include the following:
• The breadth of interconnectedness has not only stretched social, political, economic and cultural
activities across national borders, but also, potentially, across the globe. Never before has
globalization threatened to develop into a single worldwide system.
• The intensity of interconnectedness has increased with the growing magnitude of transborder or
even transworld activities, which range from migration surges and the growth of international
trade to the greater accessibility of Hollywood movies or US television programmes.
• Interconnectedness has speeded up, not least through the huge flows of electronic money that
move around the world at the flick of a computer switch, ensuring that currency and other
financial markets react almost immediately to economic events elsewhere in the world.
• It is important to distinguish globalization from more spatially delimited processes such as

internationalization and regionalization.
• Whereas internationalization refers to growing interdependence between states, the very idea of
internationalization presumes that they remain discrete national units with clearly demarcated
borders.
• By contrast, globalization refers to a process in which the very distinction between the domestic
and the external breaks down.

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• If globalization refers to transcontinental or transregional networks, flows, or interconnectedness,
then regionalization can be conceived of as the intensification of patterns of interconnectedness
and integration among states that have common borders or are geographically proximate, as in
the European Union.
• Accordingly, whereas flows of trade and finance between the world's three major economic blocs-
North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe-constitute globalization, by contrast, such flows within
these blocs are best described as regionalization.

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Globalisation and developed world- Impact and Response

• Globalization is not uniformly experienced across all regions,
countries, or even communities since it is inevitably a highly
differentiated process. Among both OECD and sub-Saharan African
states, elites are in the vanguard of globalization while the poorest in
these countries find themselves largely excluded.
• Globalization may be due to the spread of new ideas across the

globe. The dominance of beliefs in capitalism and neoliberalism
after the end of the Cold War, for instance, may have enabled
globalization.
• Developed countries mainly have a favourable approach to globalisation as they are seen mainly
as the rule makers. This is especially true for economic globalisation.
• This is exemplified by the turf war that started in Doha round at WTO over opening agricultural
and manufacturing markets, as well as trade-in-services (GATS) negotiations and expanded
intellectual property regulation (TRIPS).
• Similarly, IMF and World Bank (Bretton Woods Institutions) continue to be amongst the most
relevant and significant powerful norm-setters, convenors, knowledge-holders and influencers
of the international development and financial landscape.
• In the 1980s and 1990s, the policies championed by the BWIs were inspired in principle by the
so-called ‘Washington Consensus’, which focused ideologically on promoting free-market
economic policies such as deregulation, privatisation and trade liberalisation, as well as targeting
unlimited economic growth, and were implemented primarily through Structural Adjustment
Programmes (SAPs).
• One of the central criticisms of the World Bank and IMF relates to the political power imbalances
in their governance structures where, as a result of voting shares being based principally on the
size and ‘openness’ of countries’ economies, poorer countries – often those receiving loans from the
BWIs – are structurally under-represented in decision-making processes.
• Despite the 2016 voting reforms at the Fund, which shifted voting powers somewhat (to the
particular advantage of China), the distribution of voting power remains severely imbalanced in
favour of the US, European countries and Japan, in particular.
• Not only economic, but the developed world also happens to be norm makers on the political
front of globalisation. Constructivists note that many core ideas which support globalization, such
as democracy, capitalism, neoliberalism, human rights, or even the idea of a ‘developed’ country,
are social constructions for standardizing state behaviour.

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• For example, the Copenhagen criteria for new members of the EU – being democratic, market-
based, and protecting human rights – set the boundaries for acceptable and unacceptable
behaviour of states.
• States have internalized and made these practices legitimate, such behaviour then becomes
prescribed as the modern way to develop and govern a country. These values establish a
hierarchy of states and push all states to act similarly, thereby generating the forces for
globalization.
• Similarly, international organisations like UN are seen tilted to favour the preservation of status
quo of the advanced world. Theorists like Joseph Nye also underline the expansion of soft power
of the developed world aided by the spread of globalisation. enormous debate as to whether
globalization has a homogenizing effect on culture and values. An early literature found a strong
relationship between globalization and culture – the so-called Mcdonaldization of culture (George
Ritzer and Buzan).
However, the initial enthusiasm towards globalisation from developed countries has
declined considerably
• According to John Gray, the cataclysmic attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001
heralded a new epoch in world affairs: 'The era of globalization is over’. In response to the
perceived threat of globalized terrorism, governments sought to seal their borders. This was seen
as advent of Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilisations’ aided by globalisation.
• There is also increased nationalist and xenophobic tendencies in developed world. The crisis in
West Asia particularly, in countries like Syria, Yemen etc saw waves of refugees towards Europe
leading to a backlash from not just European countries and demands to shut down borders.
• Anthony McGrew argues that in response to the global financial crisis of 2008 many governments
have become more interventionist, protecting key national industries from foreign and trade
competition. As a consequence, the intensity of economic globalization (whether measured in
terms of trade, financial, or investment flows) has undoubtedly diminished by comparison with its
peak at the turn of this century. This was further jolted by Covid19 and following protectionism.
• Globalisation has exasperated inequalities within and among the developed countries as well.
Thomas Picketty in his work ‘Capital’ analyses developed countries like France, UK and USA
and points to the tremendous concentration of wealth at the top centile of the distribution due to
increasing “financialization” of the global economy.
• The transfer of manufacturing sector to the developing world has led to the rise of ‘rust belt’
even in the western, developed world leading to rise of conservative parties and leaders. Trump’s
win in 2016, Brexit referendum, US withdrawal from TPP etc may be seen as consequences of the
same.

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• Similarly, among the developed countries too, there have been winners and losers. While
Germany continues to be the engine of growth for EU, PIIGS economies have been overwhelmed
by mounting debts and financial crunch. The outbreak of Covid19 has only further added to their
gloom.
• Steven Altman writes how the Covid19 pandemic has

prompted a new wave of globalization obituaries. The crisis
and the necessary public health response are causing the
largest and fastest decline in international flows in modern
history and a steeper decline in FDI.
• There is also crisis of legitimacy that international

institutions are facing. The withdrawal of USA from Paris
Accord and UNESCO under Trump deals a huge blow to them
making it apparent that the backing of the developed world is
accompanied by adherence to their demands. The increasing
criticism of WHO in the face of the coronavirus breakout has
led to questions being raised against such international
institutions.
• Many scholars have also pointed to regionalization becoming more favourable rather than
globalisation. The trade wars between USA and China have led to an increased perpetuation of
regional blocs. There is a growing preference for nativism, self-reliance and localizing supply
chains.
• One can expect a more segmented world, with three major blocs or trading zones operating more
or less according to their own rules which Suhasini Haider calls the ‘goldilocks option’. Within
these zones, capital and goods will be able to move relatively easily, but outside them, it could
prove increasingly difficult- EU, ASEAN, RCEP, AfCTA, USMCA etc.

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Globalisation and Developing World- Impact and Responses

• Several Marxist scholars like Wallerstein, Amin, etc. argue that globalisation had begun with the
overseas expansion of capitalism in the form of imperial conquests and white colony settlements.
• These countries were compelled to 'open-up' their economies for unfettered penetration by the
global industrial capital. This phase has generally been referred to as the "widening phase" of
globalisation.
• After decolonisation, the post-colonial developing world had eyes on self- reliance, development
and many chose the socialist path. However, the breakdown of USSR, burden on colonial policies
and emergence of corrupt authoritarian and native elites led to massive debt crises.
• According to Marxist scholars, indirect pressure through World Bank, IMF, GATT, WTO, etc.,
was generated on the capital-starved developing societies to make structural adjustments to
accommodate the interests of the Multi-National Companies and neoliberal policies.
• In the wake of mounting debt and a slump in the world demand for agricultural exports from the
developing countries in the 1980s, they were compelled to accept the SAPs of IMF and World Bank.
• For liberal scholars, this was seen as the path for both political and economic development for the
developing world. However, there were also massive protests against what was seen as neo-
colonial and anti-poor policies by the capitalist international institutions and developed world.
• Joseph Stiglitz in his work ‘Globalisation and its discontents’ argues that IMF policies
contributed to bringing about the 1997 Asian financial crisis, as well as the 1998 Argentine
economic crisis.
• Also noted was the failure of Russia's conversion to a market economy and low levels of
development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Specific policies criticised by Stiglitz include fiscal austerity,
high interest rates, trade liberalization, and the liberalization of capital markets and insistence on
the privatization of state assets.
• According to Stiglitz, IMF interventions all followed a similar free market formula. The IMF
strongly advocated "shock therapy" in a rush to market economies, without first establishing
institutions to protect the public and local commerce. Local social, political, and economic
considerations were largely ignored.
• In her 2007 book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein describes
how corporations or governments use disasters (natural or man-made) as an opportunity to
introduce economic policies or structures that will benefit them.
• Klein argues that these policies work against the interests of the majority because they transfer
wealth and power from the people to the global corporate elite, thus why elites need to
implement these policies of in times of shock following disaster.

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• Importantly Klein argues that such strategies are
not merely being implemented in the developing
world but in the developed world as well. Klein
talks about an extremely worrying trend in the
USA – which is the privatisation of war and
security – both of which are used in times of
disaster to benefit capitalism.
• This has occurred throughout the pandemic as

well. The largest tech companies have gained $360
billion in value over the pandemic in 2022. Part of
this is due, of course, to our lives moving online,
and big tech has capitalized on this shift by relying
on precarious labour — what Kate Crawford calls
“Potemkin AI” and Mary Gray and Siddharth
Suri call “ghost work.”
Uneven geographies in developing world

• Branko Milanovic’s book ’Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization’
provides some vital insights, looking at the big winners and losers in terms of income over the two
decades from 1988 to 2008.
• Among the big winners were the global 1%, the world’s plutocrats, but also the middle class in
newly emerging economies. Among the big losers – those who gained little or nothing – were those
at the bottom and the middle and working classes in the advanced countries.
• Amartya Sen highlights how global interrelations have often been very productive in the
advancement of different countries through travel, trade, migration, spread of cultural influences,
and dissemination of knowledge and understanding (including that of science and technology).
• According to Sen, there is an urgent need for both international and national reforms to improve
the distribution of the benefits of globalization. At the national level, public policies are critical in
areas like education, epidemiology, land reform, microcredit, legal protection etc.
• Many scholars like Jagdish Bhagwati have underlined the benefits of globalisation in the
developing world as far as reduction of poverty is concerned. However, Pratap Bhanu Mehta calls
it a double-edged sword that may have benefited only the rich.
• While the middle class and service sector have progressed, the blue collar, informal sector and
agricultural communities continue to suffer. The educated middle class has benefited from
increased openness and opportunities to move abroad.

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• However, developing countries including India continue to lag behind on HDI and Inequality
indices, pointing to extremely unequal fruits of globalisation. Moreover, economists generally
assumed that the gains from economic globalization would fuel economic growth and enlarge
government budgets in order to compensate the losers. In return for citizens’ support for
globalization, governments would offer social welfare programs including unemployment
insurance and active labour market programs, as Karl Polanyi long ago noted. John Ruggie
famously termed this ‘embedded liberalism’.
• Stiglitz points to the example of Nordic countries which are deeply democratic societies. There
was a realisation that unless most workers regarded globalisation as benefiting them, it
wouldn’t be sustained. However, most countries, especially developing ones have not been able to
do the same.
• Importantly, globalisation has been dominated by transfer of products, factors of production and
capital flows. However, the developed world has been reluctant to open borders for labour and
technology transfers leading to problems.
• Another major point of attack has been the international institutions and the lack of democratic
structure and decision making therein leading to hegemony of the developed world. This has
further been marred by international intervention led by the global North which has often seen as
pushing many states of the developing world towards failure, rather than protecting them.
• This anomaly came to front during the Covid19 pandemic with developing countries like India and
South Africa leading proposal for TRIPS waiver concerning COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and
diagnostics. The ‘Geneva Package’ at the 12th WTO Ministerial in 2022 conference included a
watered-down version limited to vaccines and patents with nothing about other restrictive
elements such as copyrights, industrial designs or trade secrets.
• The emerging economies have been especially critical of this lopsided structure and have become
leaders of change. However, this has also led to a growing schism in the developing world itself.
An example of the same is with regard to climate change crisis and the need for change regarding
the same.
• In terms of culture, there has been an increased tendency of norms standardization imposed by the
developed countries. However, it has also received backlash from indigenous cultures around the
world. Scholars like Huntington believe that it has led to clash of civilisation, with an emphasis on
revival of local customs and traditions.
• On the other hand, in his book, Jihad vs. McWorld, Benjamin Barber argues that the spread of
"McWorld" brings with it the development of local fundamentalist movements ("Jihads") deeply
opposed to McDonaldization. However, in the end, Barber concludes that McWorld will win out
over Jihad. To succeed on a large scale, he says, fundamentalist movements must begin to use
McDonaldized systems (such as e-mail, the Internet, television).

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Does Economic Globalisation bring prosperity for all?
• In his work ‘In defense of Globalisation’, Bhagwati argues that ‘globalization is part of the
solution, not part of the problem’. He argues against critics that globalisation has brought
development and unprecedented rates of growth to poor countries and the poor peoples of the
world.
• Bhagwati believes economic globalisation to have a human face and argues that the conditions for
children and women in countries that have opened up have been much better that those that have
remain shut.

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• Sachs and Warner in their seminal paper have tried to show reform works and that there is no
invincible poverty trap. They show that countries such as Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa that
have opened up their economies and accepted foreign trade have witnessed accelerated growth in
the countries.
• The World Bank in 2019 noted that India has achieved annual growth exceeding seven per cent
over the last 15 years, halved its poverty rate since the 1990s, and enjoyed strong improvements
in most human development outcomes. As of 2020, the incidence of multidimensional poverty has
further significantly reduced, declining from 54.7 percent in 2005 to 17 percent in 2020.
• According to the World Bank, more than 850 million Chinese people have been lifted out of
extreme poverty; China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015, as
measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011
purchasing price parity terms.
• Scholars like Fareed Zakaria underline the growing share of trade of countries from developing
world with China’s share in global trade of goods jumping from 3% in 1995 to 12.5% in 2018. The
share of global trade increased as pandemic-related exports surged. Already the world’s top
exporter, China’s shipments increased 3.6% in 2020, according to official data. For Zakaria, this has
been at the expense of USA and Europe- “decline of west and rise of rest.”
• J. Bhagwati, to address the adverse consequences of globalization, and to make "the beneficial
globalization process work even better,” argues for "managed" globalization using a three-
pronged strategy:
o First, he advocates policies to mitigate the downsides associated with globalization, such
as the displacement of jobs. More specifically, he advocates unemployment insurance,
retraining programs and initiatives to reduce volatility in agriculture.
o Second, he argues that the transition from a closed to an open economy must be done
gradually. This is especially true with financial markets. Bhagwati argues this is most likely
the best explanation of the Asian financial crisis during 1997 and 1998. So, he argues, closed
financial markets should be opened gradually and carefully to prevent this instability.
o Finally, Bhagwati urges the pursuit of policies that accelerate the beneficial effects of
globalization on social issues including monitoring and reviews by various international
agencies.

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Globalisation and Nation-State
• The nation-state has been the dominant form of political community since the French Revolution.
Michael Mann argues that modern states enjoy high levels of 'intensive power’: Power that can
be projected deep into society- power regulate (if not control) most aspects of society, including
economic activity and relations within the family.
• The modern states enjoy a high level of 'extensive power': power that can be exercised across
their territories. However, the onslaught of globalisation has brought about a debate regarding the
nation-state and the absolute sovereignty it enjoys.
Three contrasting positions can be identified

• Post-sovereign governance: Hyperglobalists like Scholte believe that the rise of globalization is
inevitably marked by the decline of the state as a meaningful actor- the state is seen to be so
‘hollowed out’ as to have become, in effect, redundant. The notion of pooled sovereignty is put
forward here such as with EU. Others like K. Ohmae point to increasing range of economic
activities take place within a ‘borderless world’.
• State as determinants: Realist and sceptic commentators argue that the impact of globalization in
its economic, cultural and political forms has always been exaggerated: states remain the decisive
political actors such as during the 2008 recession and the covid19 pandemic.
• Between these two views, however, is a third position, which acknowledges that globalization has
brought about qualitative changes in the role and significance of the state, and in the nature of
sovereignty, but emphasizes that these have transformed the state, rather than simply reduced or
increased its power.
• The transformationalist view regarding the nation-state can be seen in three main ways:
o Scholars like Bobbitt point to the state’s unique capacity to maintain domestic order and
protect its citizens from external attack has been strongly underlined by new security
challenges that have emerged in the twenty-first century, notably those linked to
transnational terrorism.
o Secondly, the state has reasserted itself as an agent of modernization. Modernising states
develop and implement strategies to ensure long-term economic success. ’Competition
states’ do this by improving education and training in order to boost productivity and by
providing support for key export industries. Robert Cox also emphasises that the process
of economic globalization nevertheless requires a political framework that is provided by
the state, notably in the form of the ‘military-territorial power of an enforcer’.

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o Finally, there has been a growing recognition of the role of the state in promoting
development. Robert Cooper points ‘postmodern’ states, are more pluralist, more
complex and less centralized than the bureaucratic ‘modern’ states and are characterized
by both the wider role played by private organizations in the processes of governance and
the fact that government’s role is increasingly orientated around the promotion of personal
development and personal consumption.

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Is Sovereignty an outdated concept?

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As per David Held, state sovereignty is facing following challenges
• Globalization may undermine countries’ sovereignty. The rise of supranational organizations
accompanying the last wave of globalization is thought to threaten countries’ autonomy. The
rise of international organizations has stimulated these controversies.
• According to R. Keohane, joining these institutions often means adjusting policies and
coordinating with other states.
• However, others like S. Krasner note that these institutions rarely constrain states; states often act
in contradiction to their commitments and they build in flexibility to the terms of their
international commitments so they can respond to significant changes.
• Countries, for example, have signed many international trade agreements, limiting their trade and
investment policies and opening their economies. Governments, however, create flexibility when
binding themselves to international commitments. They want to balance domestic pressures and
international obligations using ‘escape clauses’, ‘grandfathering clauses’ etc.
• At the same time, rising inequality and immigration associated with globalization along with many
governments’ inability or unwillingness to compensate globalization's losers have led some
scholars to wonder whether globalization might be undermining democracy and leading to a surge
in support for populist parties and candidates especially in developing world. Other researchers
have argued that globalization is not the cause of populism and stressed that cultural backlash
against new values has engendered nativism and a xenophobic backlash that has fostered
nationalistic and anti-democratic sentiments.

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Globalisation vs regionalization
• It is important to distinguish globalization from more spatially delimited processes such as
internationalization and regionalization.
• Whereas internationalization refers to growing interdependence between states, the very idea of
internationalization presumes that they remain discrete national units with clearly demarcated
borders.
• By contrast, globalization refers to a process in which the very distinction between the domestic and
the external breaks down.
• If globalization refers to transcontinental or transregional networks, flows, or interconnectedness,
then regionalization can be conceived of as the intensification of patterns of interconnectedness
and integration among states that have common borders or are geographically proximate, as in
the European Union.
• Accordingly, whereas flows of trade and finance between the world's three major economic blocs-
North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe-constitute globalization, by contrast, such flows within
these blocs are best described as regionalization.
Emergence of regionalization
• Political contexts shape economic systems:
o Regional integration arguments first emerged in Europe after the Second World War.
Integration was seen as a way to escape a state-centric international order and the
overwhelming distrust that accompanied it. The political context was one of deep
scepticism towards the nation state and the belief that liberal international institutions are
necessary to establish peace and stability.
o The second wave of regional activity grew in the mid-1980s as a direct response to bipolar
conflict, seen again as a way to mitigate superpower rivalry. However, with the collapse of
the Soviet Union and consequently the collapse of Communism as an ideology, the new
political environment gave way to globalisation which thrived in the changed context.
o Today, in the aftermath of recession, pandemic and increasing populism in domestic order,
the political context seems once again apposite for regionalisation. As per Shannon K.
O’Nei, What’s happening to the global economy is better termed “regionalization” than
“globalization.
Signs of regionalization
• Chief Economist at the IMF, Gita Gopinath noted, “In future, business firms are likely to take
greater account of tail risks, resulting in supply chains that are more local and robust—but less
global.

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o According to Prabhash Ranjan, the gridlock at the WTO has led to the emergence of mega
plurilateral trade agreements like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for
Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Another key trade treaty is the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement between powerful Asian
economies and countries down under.
▪ These mega plurilateral agreements not only fragment the global governance on
international trade but also push the multilateral order to the margin, converting
the WTO to what some call an “institutional zombie”.
• Further, Economic nationalism is being embraced by several governments [examples America first,
Brexit, and Made in India.]
• China, aiming to bend the multilateral system in its favour, is setting up parallel governance
structures such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or the China Development Bank.
• The ‘dark side of globalisation’ has been the subject of sustained research by International
Relations and International Political Economy (IPE) scholars. Debates within the theoretical
perspectives of ‘New Regionalism’ and ‘Critical IPE’ have been consistent in calling attention to
the uneven and exploitative nature of globalization.
• Developing countries that provide much of the cheap labour that has buttressed globalisation face
overwhelmingly unfair barriers when it comes to their own exports.
• International organisations have also been called out for their “dysfunctionality” because they are
not seen as either reflecting the changing power balances or addressing the fallouts of an
interconnected world.
• As per Piotr Lukaszuk, there are three indicators that reveal regionalization:
o the share of global trade

between nations on the same
continent;
o the share of global trade

between nations featuring a
common border;
o and the average trade-

weighted geographic distance
of global trade.
• All three signal a trend towards

regionalization.

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Emergence of New Regionalism
• New Regionalism emerged as a set of theoretical ideas and debates in the early 2000s. The goal was
to reflect the new and perennially changing international context that was not adequately
accounted for in earlier regionalism literature that followed the Second World War.
• New Regionalism debates focused on various aspects of globalisation and regionalisation:
o some theorists emphasised the diversity and plurality of relationships and others compared
and contrasted the two processes;
o still others believed regionalisation could be the appropriate response to what they saw as
the dysfunctional nature of globalization;
o In contrast, many also believed regionalisation was equally problematic because it merely
reinforced the detrimental effects of globalisation; however, they admitted it had the
potential to transcend these issues and eventually contribute to social regulation, social
control and development.
Difference between old and new regionalism

• Beyond trade and economics: Earlier arguments for regionalism were narrowly focused on
economic integration and preferential trade agreements.
• In contrast, New Regionalism considers different kinds of regionalism appropriate for different
regions. Its focus is less on integration and more on cooperation. Professor of European Integration,
Thomas Christiansen argues that regional integration describes what is happening in Europe,
whereas regional cooperation is the category that best captures the regional phenomenon in the
rest of the world.
• Plurality of actors and processes: New Regionalism takes into account a broad set of actors and
processes that operate at various levels including the local, regional and global. These include
NGOs, social movements, businesses, media, informal sector, and other non-state actors and
processes –all of which it reckons has agency, albeit in varying degrees.
• Importance of International and (Extra-) Regional Environment: Conditions for regionalism,

while peculiar to the region, are also tied to the international political setting and structure, and these
are always changing. Theorists studying Europe in the 1950s tended to ignore the external and
international environment and focused narrowly on endogenous conditions necessary for
regionalism. New Regionalism, however, pays specific attention to the driving forces and political
motivations at all levels—domestic, regional and international. Consequently, regionalisation
processes are seen as being simultaneously inside-out, and outside-in.

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• The return of the political: New Regionalism sees regionalisation processes as inherently political.
These do not occur naturally, and have to be encouraged politically. Ultimately politics and political
will matter more. Regionalisation goals will succeed depending on “the degree of political will to
subordinate narrow national interests in the short term to achieve regional gains over the long term
that benefit all members.
Globalisation is not dead so far

• As per Stephen Dover first, globalization is down but not out. The data are clear—an era of
super-charged cross-border growth in trade and capital flows has ended. However, there has been
no generalized decline in international economic activity. Rather, its growth rate has slowed. In
that sense, genuine de-globalization is not yet broadly underway.
• Second, of the factors responsible for globalization, the one now failing is political
commitment. Populism, nationalism, financial re-regulation and national security concerns have
usurped economics as the priorities of international relations.
• Third, for all the concern about too much dependence on China or discussion of reshoring
manufacturing back to the United States or Europe, the reality is different. The world is not yet
shifting the nexus of production back within national borders. As the demand for goods surged
when economies were reopened in 2021 and in early 2022, China’s exports boomed, revealing that
global supply chains remain intact and integral to the functioning of the world economy.
Conclusion
• Joseph Stiglitz recommends that as the world turns inwards, a balance must be sought between
self-reliance and globalization.
• As per Richard Hass there is a better way to respond to the challenges and threats of globalization.
Effective collective action can meet the risks of disease, climate change, cyber-attacks, nuclear
proliferation, and terrorism. No single country on its own can make itself secure; unilateralism is
not a serious policy path.
• Globalization, regionalization and nationalization should accommodate each other with

equilibrium forces along with economic and social development rather than excluding one for the
other with the objectives of social transformation and development in context of globalization.

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Covid 19 and future of Globalisation

• Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at Oxford University, and author of "The
Butterfly Defect, How Globalization Creates Systemic Risks, And What To Do About It", says
that "risks have been allowed to fester, they are the underbelly of globalisation".
• That, he says, can be seen not only in coronavirus crisis, but also in the credit crunch and banking
crisis of 2008, and the vulnerability of the internet to cyber-attacks. The new global economic
system brings huge benefits, but also huge risks.
• The COVID-19 pandemic may well provide further momentum to increasingly national- interest
oriented policies in the west. The globalized system has been increasingly under threat for the past
several years, particularly from populist parties working on fears and resentment of those who feel
left behind by globalization.
• The COVID-19 pandemic may well be the last nail in the coffin of globalization certain scholars
contend. Firms in USA and Europe will step away from the long supply chains and just-in-time
deliveries that helped drive down costs. All countries will attempt to build up production of
“essential goods” including medical supplies and possibly even food items. This may mean
Western manufacturing industry will start bringing work back home, or re-shoring.
• All this will impact trade, especially from developing countries. At the same time credit and
investment flows will be largely focused to helping domestic enterprises in developed countries
with little left for flows to developing countries.
• Focusing specifically on emerging economies, the World Bank forecasts a 20% decline in
remittances sent back home by migrants living and working abroad.
• Dhar and Kumar argue that when the world was hit by economic recession in 2008, trade dipped
by almost 10% in 2009 when there was a 3% decline in global GDP. The follow up to the pandemic
will be even worse. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has estimated that in a worst-case
scenario, global trade could dip as much as 32% leading to what is being called ‘slowbalisation’.
They argue that in the last quarter of the twentieth century, we saw one driver of governance —
market forces-oriented. But now, in major economies, governments have taken centre stage.
• There will be changes in the WTO and trade governance framework, with different kinds of
regional and bilateral engagements.
• On the other hand, Steven Altman writes how ongoing technological shifts such as the adoption of
e-commerce, videoconferencing, and robots have all been supercharged by Covid-19. Many
pandemic-induced shifts could also strengthen globalization. Similarly issues like pandemic and
climate crises have reinforced the interdependencies in the world.

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• Focusing on facts, becoming more sensitive to inequality, and emphasizing real economic
contributions can help to support a healthier globalization debate.
• Covid-19 looks like a “bend but won’t break crisis” for globalization. The DHL Global
Connectedness Index 2021 showed that after steeply plummeting early in the pandemic, trade in
goods rebounded to above its pre-pandemic level before the end of 2020.Importantly, it is due to
global collaboration, effective treatments and vaccines for this virus have emerged. Adaptable
supply chains and access to the global market are helping us soften the economic impact.
Arguments against de-globalisation
• Michael Spence (Nobel laurate) in Project Syndicate argues that the dire state of global economy,
issues of pandemic, climate change have highlighted the risks that de-globalisation poses.
• Within the developed world, particularly in Europe various leaders have become aware and have
resisted economic fragmentation and resistance. The Russia-Ukraine conflict and tensions between
US and China, argued French President Macron, risks dividing the world into competing blocs.
• Emerging economies for their part have strongly defended global interdependence and recognise
that a divided global economy is shaped primarily by great power rivalry detrimental to their
interests. Important issues like climate change argues Raghuram Rajan will be severely impeded
due to economic fragmentation and mutual suspicion.
• Even international financial institutions like WTO point that maintaining. Growing fragmentation
will also impede operations of key players like openness in trade, finance and technology flows is
essential to support the global economic recovery NCs who will struggle to cope with
inconsistent rule across the world.
• As per UN Secretary-General António Guterres world is witnessing four horsemen” [of the
apocalypse]-four looming threats that endanger 21st-century progress and imperil 21st-century
possibilities.
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• The first horseman comes in the form of the highest global geostrategic tensions we have
witnessed in years. More people have been forced from their homes by war and persecution than
at any time since the Second World War. Tensions over trade and technology remain unresolved.
The risk of a Great Fracture is real.
• Second, we face an existential climate crisis. The climate change can have devastating
consequences for booth the developing and developed world. The rising temperatures and heat
waves witnessed across Europe and North America; the worsening frequency of hurricanes are all
indicators of the same.
• The third horseman is deep and growing global mistrust. Disquiet and discontent are churning
societies from north to south. Each situation is unique, but everywhere frustration is filling the
streets. More and more people are convinced globalization is not working for them. Hostilities
against women, migrants and refugees are all on the rise.
• The fourth threat is the dark side of the digital world. Despite enormous benefits, new
technologies are being abused to commit crimes, incite hate, fake information, oppress and exploit
people and invade privacy.
Need of re-globalisation
• Ingrid Kofler Roland Benedikter have talked about “5 R’s” of re-globalization.
o Globalization must be:
▪ corrected and refined (refining);
▪ re-contextualized, reframed and adapted (reframing);
▪ reformed (reforming);
▪ redefined (redefining); and
▪ provided with a new vision (revisioning).
• UN Secretary-General António Guterres rightly called the “age of mistrust,” there are in essence
12 areas where (and through which) patterns can be (re)ordered – and on which we can potentially
draw upon to rethink, reconstruct, and rebuild globalization.
• These 12 areas or fields of action are:
o Multipolarity (with the task to develop new strategies for dealing with the multiplication of
diverse global order ideas and ideologies).
o Scale (work with asymmetries and question whether big is beautiful, e.g., the size of major
political powers or global internet giants).
o Balance (between political systems, numbers, and actors).
o Context (featuring glocalization).

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o Boundary (work with the “Seneca effect” of maximum saturation and tipping point
calculations to prevent high-risk sectors from overshooting)
o Multi-resilience as transformation design (strengthen and link resilience strategies when

mediating between different value systems).
o Futures literacy (strengthen and link interactive forecasting, foresight, and anticipation
approaches).
o Inter- and trans-disciplinarity (network and overview the “big picture” by considering the
mutual interactions among the six dimensions of economic, political, cultural, religious,
technological, and demographic developmental logics).
o Sustainability (apply the long-term perspective).
o Narrative literacy/narrative balancing (push back on political correctness in academic and

public discourse to make room for different accounts of what is happening).
o Imaginary politics (address the increasing influence of intangible factors and information
ambiguity on all aspects of globalized digital societies).
o Equality and certainty (address inequality and uncertainty across systems
Tackling de-globalisation
• Michael Spence puts forward certain suggestions:
• Tackling mistrust: Trust building across

countries but crucially between competing
powers of US and China to build goodwill and
confidence.
• Supply-Chain diversification: Need to build

economic resilience through supply chain
diversification through increased multilateralism
among reliable partners.
• Strengthening international institutions: For this new multilateralism to work, Spence underlines
need to strengthen international institutions through increased capitalization and governance
reforms. Further countries must commit to respect and abide by the authority of these institutions.
Question: Critically examine the process of globalisation from the perspective of countries of the
Global South. [2020]
Answer:
• Introduce Globalisation
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• Explain its impact in detail on global south- Positive and Negative in economic, political and
cultural domains
• Conclusion
Globalisation
• In the words of Thomas Friedman, globalization can be understood as inexorable integration of
markets, nation states, and technology to an extent never seen before. It can be understood as
stretching and deepening of relations across time and space such that the world has become a
borderless global village.
Impact On Global South

• Economic Domain- Positive impact:
o Jagdish Bhagwati (In Defence of Globalisation) argued that due to the trickle down effect,
global inequalities have reduced for the first time. GLobal literacy has increased, IMR has
declined and life expectancy has increased in the global south.
o According to the IMF, globalisation helps developing countries to connect with the rest of
the world and increase their economic growth, solving the poverty problems in their
country. It ensures the comparative advantage theory and thus boosts trade promoting
prosperity especially among the developing countries.
• Economic Domain- Negative Impacts:
o However, according to Naomi Klein, the present processes of globalisation have led to
widening inequities between North and South as well as within countries. The demand for
NIEO was a result of endurance of neo-colonialism which had a debilitating impact on
Third World.
o Instrumental Marxists like Immanuel Wallerstein and A.G Frank also argue that current
form of globalisation has perpetuated ‘development of the underdevelopment’ in
countries of global south due to unequal terms of trade, monopoly rents and other
extractive policies
o According to Joseph Stiglitz, globalisation and more specifically the Washington

Consensus lacked in attention to governance and did not adequately consider the impact
of economic policies on the state and its role, thus failing to address both poverty and
inequality.
• Similarly, Prof. Ramesh Thakur (The Dark Side of Globalisation) argued that the trade advantage
of developed countries vastly outstrips development assistance given to developing countries.
o He gave examples of Baltic states witnessing negative growth, stagnant economies of

African LDCs and Guinea Bisau turning into a narco state due to adverse effects of
globalization

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• Political Domain- Positive Impact:
o Capitalist modernity has led to the decline of ‘zoon politikon’. There is increased cynicism
against politicians and less faith in organised politics in countries of the global south. The
result is the rise of new social movements and deepening democracy due to rise of
‘network society’ (Castells).
o There is also political lethargy as lines between traditional left and right are blurring.
Friedman famously said that ‘political choices get reduced to Pepsi and coke’ especially
with the rise of post-industrial societies (Daniel Bell).
o Many scholars argue that globalization may, in some ways, have strengthened the state,
which, as states such as China and Russia have demonstrated, has gained renewed
importance as an agent of modernization.
• Political Domain- Negative Impact:
o Kenichi Ohame and Marshall McLuhan feel that there is dilution of sovereignty which has
led to a crisis of governability in countries of the south.
o Similarly, Samir Amin (Capitalism in the Age of Globalisation) has shown growing French
neo-colonialism in West Africa and rise of puppet regimes in the global south
• Socio-Cultural Domain- Positive and Negative Impact:
o Globalisation allowed diverse cultures to interact and come closer to one another as can
be seen in the advent of “Glocalisation”.
o On the other hand, K.N Pannikar talks about the cultural crisis for middle class families
due to diffusion of cultures. We can witness religious revivalism due to clashes between
religion and market forces.
o Benjamin Barker says that since market is fast replacing religion as the opium for masses
we can witness Jihad v/s McWorld fight or a renewed version of Huntington’s ‘clash of
civilisations’.
o Rising ethnic chauvinism, xenophobia and racial purging (Rohingyas) are becoming
common in many of the culturally heterogeneous countries of south. Further the issue of
cultural appropriation by the West has also led to a number of issues.
Conclusion
• According to Jagdish Bhagwati, globalisation itself is not the problem or the solution. Variety of
steps need to be taken to ensure that globalisation reaches its logical end.
• It is a double-edged sword and if nations invest in capacity of their people and adopt right
economic policy, it can bring prosperity. Bhikhu Parekh rightly suggests globalisation is needed to
be based on ‘’dialogue among civilisations’ rather than globalisation from above to bridge the
north south divide.

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Introduction to Comparative Politics 3

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Introduction to Comparative Politics

o Which decisions are made?

o How decisions are made?

o Who makes or influences decisions?

• Three traditions of Comparative Politics:

o Study of single countries

o Methodological studies regarding how comparative studies should be carried out.

o Analytical tradition of combining empirical substance and method.

• Main functions of comparative politics:

o Comparative politics describes the similarities and differences and establishes

o It seeks to go beyond description to explain the similarities and differences- formulate

o Comparative Politics aims to formulate predictions.

• Levels of analysis (What is compared?)

o National political systems

o Sub/ Non-national political systems (regional or supranational)

o Types of political systems (qualitative comparison- democratic vs authoritarian)

o Single elements of political system (structures of parliament, electoral laws etc.)

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What is Political System?

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o Intermeshed with inter and intra systems;

o Open System- Interaction between the environment and system;

o Inter-linked and in equilibrium.

o Took into consideration the expanding geographical concerns.

o Took into consideration informal actors.

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Structural-functionalism and Political Development

• Features of Political system:

o Universality of Political Structures.

o Universality of Political functions.

o Multi-functionality of political structure.

o Culturally mixed character.

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Political Culture Approach

• At the same time, one must bear certain things in mind:

o Lastly it is important to not reduce political culture to a stereotyped ‘national character’.

The kinds of political cultures include

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Political Trust and Social Capital

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Political Culture at global level

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Huntington’s explanation regarding reasons for clash

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• The cultural characteristics and differences are less

• The economic regionalism is increasing and the successful

Criticism of Huntington’s approach

Criticism of Political Culture Approach

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Political Sociology Approach

• According to Duverger, political sociology is the science of power, of government, of authority of

o The socio-political formation of modern state.

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o Rajni Kothari- ‘Politicisation of caste’;