Examius
🇮🇳 UGC NET Political Science · flashcards
UGC NET Political Science Comparative Political Analysis Flashcards
56 question-and-answer cards covering Comparative Political Analysis as it is examined in UGC NET Political Science. 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Comparative Political Analysis deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
What is judicial review?
The power of courts to examine legislative and executive acts and declare them void if they conflict with the constitution; classically established in the US case Marbury v. Madison (1803).
Why are emergency powers seen as a 'crisis of constitutionalism'?
Because suspending normal rights/limits to meet emergencies (Schmitt's 'state of exception') concentrates power in the executive and risks becoming permanent, undermining the rule of law the constitution is meant to guarantee.
What is meant by 'democratic transition'?
The interval and process of regime change from authoritarian rule to democracy—beginning with the breakdown of the old regime and ending with the installation of a new government via free elections.
What is 'democratic consolidation'?
The process by which democracy becomes deeply entrenched and stable—when it becomes 'the only game in town,' accepted by all major actors and unlikely to break down (Linz and Stepan).
What are the four 'arenas' Linz and Stepan say a consolidated democracy requires?
A free civil society, a relatively autonomous political society, the rule of law, a usable state bureaucracy, and an institutionalized economic society (often listed as five conditions).
What does 'underdevelopment' mean in dependency theory?
Not an original or backward state but an actively produced condition—'the development of underdevelopment' (Frank)—created by a country's subordinate insertion into the world capitalist economy.
State the central thesis of dependency theory.
That poverty in periphery (satellite) nations results from their exploitative dependence on rich core (metropolitan) nations, which extract surplus and structure peripheral economies to serve core needs.
What is 'modernization theory' and its key claim?
A post-war theory (Rostow, Lerner) holding that societies progress along a unilinear path from 'traditional' to 'modern' by adopting Western values, technology and institutions; Rostow's five stages culminate in 'high mass consumption.'
List Rostow's five stages of economic growth.
(1) Traditional society, (2) preconditions for take-off, (3) take-off, (4) drive to maturity, and (5) age of high mass consumption.
What are the three structural positions in Wallerstein's World Systems Theory?
Core, periphery, and semi-periphery—within a single capitalist world-economy where the core exploits the periphery, and the semi-periphery occupies an intermediate, stabilising role.
What does Wallerstein mean by a single 'capitalist world-economy'?
A world system with one integrated division of labour and multiple political states but no single political centre, structured by ceaseless capital accumulation since the 'long sixteenth century.'
What is the relationship Lipset proposed between development and democracy?
His modernization/'social requisites' thesis: the more well-to-do (wealthier, more educated, urbanised) a nation, the greater the chances it will sustain democracy—economic development underpins democratic stability.
How does Marx define the 'ruling class'?
The class that owns and controls the means of production (the bourgeoisie under capitalism); its dominant economic position lets it dominate the state and ruling ideas—'the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class.'
What is C. Wright Mills's concept of the 'power elite'?
In The Power Elite (1956), the small, interlocking group of leaders from the corporate, military and political (executive) institutions who hold and coordinate the key decision-making power in American society.
What is the 'iron law of oligarchy' (Robert Michels)?
The thesis that all organisations, even democratic parties, inevitably develop a dominant ruling minority/leadership oligarchy—'who says organisation says oligarchy.'
What is 'democratic elitism' (Schumpeter)?
A theory redefining democracy as a competitive struggle among elites for the people's vote; democracy is 'that institutional arrangement... in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote.'
Compare First-Past-The-Post with Proportional Representation electoral systems.
FPTP (plurality, single-member districts) tends to produce two-party systems and majoritarian/disproportional results; PR allocates seats in proportion to votes (multi-member districts), tending toward multiparty systems and coalitions.
State Duverger's Law and the accompanying hypothesis.
Duverger's Law: single-ballot plurality (FPTP) systems tend to produce two-party systems; the hypothesis: proportional representation and two-ballot systems tend to favour multipartism.
How does Sartori classify party systems by number and ideological distance?
By format and polarization: one-party, hegemonic, predominant, two-party, moderate pluralism (3–5 parties, centripetal), polarized pluralism (5+ parties, anti-system parties, centrifugal), and atomized.
What distinguishes pluralist from corporatist interest-group systems?
Pluralism features many competing, voluntary, overlapping groups freely lobbying the state (e.g. USA); corporatism features a few peak, hierarchically organised groups officially incorporated into policymaking with the state (e.g. Scandinavia).
What are 'new social movements' and how do they differ from old class-based movements?
Movements (since the 1960s) focused on identity, quality of life and post-material issues—environment, peace, gender, civil rights—using decentralised networks and direct action, rather than the labour/class economic concerns of 'old' movements.
What is the difference between NGOs and civil society in political analysis?
Civil society is the broad sphere of voluntary associations between family/market and the state; NGOs are specific formal, non-profit organised bodies within civil society that deliver services, advocate, or campaign on public issues.
What is the key difference between a revolution and a coup d'état?
A revolution is a rapid, fundamental, mass-based transformation of a society's state and class structures; a coup is merely a sudden seizure of state power by a small group (often the military) without transforming social structure.
What is the central argument of Theda Skocpol's 'States and Social Revolutions' (1979)?
A structural, state-centred account: social revolutions (France, Russia, China) arise from the conjuncture of state crises (especially international/military pressure) and agrarian class structures enabling peasant revolt—'revolutions are not made; they come.'
What this deck covers
The Comparative Political Analysis deck follows the UGC NET Political Science Comparative Political Analysis syllabus — 10 chapters and 37 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 5.6 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 209 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Comparative Political Analysis flashcards FAQ
How many Comparative Political Analysis flashcards are in this UGC NET Political Science deck?
56 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these UGC NET Political Science flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 56-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Comparative Political Analysis cards cover?
They follow the UGC NET Political Science Comparative Political Analysis syllabus — 10 chapters and 37 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.