UGC NET Sociology State, Politics and Development Flashcards

24 sample cards from the State, Politics and Development deck

Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.

1. What anti-corruption institution did India's 2013 Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act create?

   It created the Lokpal at the central level and Lokayuktas at the state level - ombudsman bodies empowered to inquire into allegations of corruption against public functionaries, including the Prime Minister (with safeguards), enacted after the 2011 anti-corruption (India Against Corruption) movement.

2. Name the major international development organizations of the Bretton Woods system and their core mandate.

   The International Monetary Fund (IMF) - monetary stability and balance-of-payments lending; the World Bank (IBRD/IDA) - development finance and poverty reduction loans. Both were founded in 1944 at Bretton Woods. The WTO governs trade rules.

3. What were 'Structural Adjustment Programmes' (SAPs) and their main conditionalities?

   SAPs were IMF/World Bank loan packages (1980s-90s) requiring policy reforms: trade liberalization, currency devaluation, privatization, deregulation, fiscal austerity and cuts to subsidies/social spending. They were criticized for worsening poverty and inequality in the Global South.

4. What are the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and when were they adopted?

   The SDGs are a set of 17 global goals (with 169 targets) adopted by the UN in 2015 as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, succeeding the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000-2015) and covering poverty, hunger, health, education, gender, climate, etc.

5. What is a 'pressure group' and how does it differ from a 'political party'?

   A pressure group is an organized interest that seeks to influence public policy without contesting elections or capturing power (e.g., FICCI, trade unions). A political party seeks to win power and form government. Pressure groups articulate interests; parties aggregate them.

6. Distinguish 'sectional/interest' pressure groups from 'promotional/cause' groups.

   Sectional (protective) groups defend the material interests of their members (trade unions, business associations, caste associations). Promotional (cause) groups advance a value or cause benefiting wider society (environmental, civil-liberties, anti-corruption groups).

7. What is a 'political faction' and what is its typical basis in Indian politics?

   A faction is an informal, vertically organized group within a larger party or community mobilized around a leader and held together by patron-client (jajmani/loyalty) ties rather than ideology. In Indian village/party politics factions form around kinship, caste and resource competition.

8. What is a 'new social movement' and how does it differ from 'old' (class-based) movements?

   New social movements (post-1960s) mobilize around identity, culture, quality of life and rights (gender, environment, ethnicity, disability) rather than class/economic redistribution. They are decentralized, value-oriented and draw on the middle class and civil society.

9. What distinguishes an identity-based movement organized around caste from one organized around class?

   A caste-based movement mobilizes a status/ascriptive group for dignity, recognition and reservation (e.g., Dalit movements). A class movement mobilizes around shared economic position and redistribution. Caste movements emphasize identity and social justice; class movements emphasize material interest.

10. What is the disability rights movement's core paradigm shift, from the 'medical model' to the 'social model'?

    The medical model treats disability as an individual impairment to be cured. The social model (central to the movement) locates disability in disabling social barriers, attitudes and exclusion, demanding rights, accessibility and inclusion - reflected in India's Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

11. What is a regional movement and what typically drives it in India?

    A regional movement mobilizes a territorially based population around identity, autonomy or statehood. Drivers include linguistic identity, perceived economic neglect, sons-of-the-soil sentiment and demands for separate states (e.g., Telangana, Jharkhand, the Dravidian movement).

12. How does T.H. Marshall classify the evolution of 'citizenship' rights?

    Marshall identified three components developing over three centuries: civil rights (18th c. - liberty, property, justice), political rights (19th c. - to vote and hold office), and social rights (20th c. - welfare, education, economic security). Citizenship is full membership of a community.

13. What is 'civil society' in the Gramscian and the liberal/Tocquevillean senses?

    For Gramsci, civil society is the sphere (church, schools, media, associations) where the ruling class secures 'hegemony' through consent, and where counter-hegemony can be built. In the liberal/Tocquevillean sense it is the realm of voluntary associations between state and family that sustains democracy.

14. What is Robert Putnam's concept of 'social capital' and its link to civil society?

    Social capital refers to networks, norms of reciprocity and trust that enable cooperation for mutual benefit. Putnam argued dense associational life (civil society) builds social capital, which improves democratic performance and governance (from 'Making Democracy Work').

15. What distinguishes an NGO from a social movement?

    An NGO is a formal, often professionalized, registered non-profit organization delivering services or advocacy, frequently funded by grants. A social movement is a sustained collective mobilization for change with looser structure. NGOs may support movements but are bureaucratic and project-based.

16. What is the critique of the 'NGO-ization' of activism and civil society?

    NGO-ization refers to the professionalization, depoliticization and donor-dependence of activism, where movements are fragmented into project-bound, fundable NGOs. Critics argue it tames radical politics, makes groups accountable upward to donors rather than to constituencies, and substitutes service delivery for structural change.

17. Distinguish 'transformational' from 'transactional' leadership (Burns/Bass).

    Transactional leadership exchanges rewards for compliance and works within existing structures. Transformational leadership inspires followers with vision, values and charisma to transcend self-interest and pursue collective goals. Social movements typically rely on transformational/charismatic leadership.

18. What is the constitutional basis of reservations in India, and the three main beneficiary categories?

    Articles 15(4), 16(4) and 46 enable reservations. The three constitutionally recognized categories are Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC); a 10% Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota was added by the 103rd Amendment (2019).

19. What was the significance of the Mandal Commission and the Indra Sawhney (1992) judgment for reservations?

    The Mandal Commission (1980) recommended 27% reservation for OBCs in central government jobs/education. In Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992) the Supreme Court upheld OBC reservation, introduced the 'creamy layer' exclusion, and capped total reservation at 50%.

20. What is the 'creamy layer' concept in Indian reservation policy?

    The creamy layer refers to the relatively forward and affluent members within OBCs who are excluded from reservation benefits so that quotas reach the genuinely disadvantaged. Established in Indra Sawhney (1992); income/status criteria are periodically revised.

21. What is 'tribe' as classified administratively in India through the 'Scheduled Tribe' category, and on what criteria?

    Scheduled Tribes are communities notified under Article 342. The criteria (from the Lokur Committee) are: primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness. They receive constitutional protections and reservations.

22. What is the difference between 'decentralization' as 'deconcentration', 'delegation' and 'devolution'?

    Deconcentration shifts administrative tasks to field offices of central government (weakest). Delegation transfers responsibilities to semi-autonomous agencies. Devolution transfers real political, financial and administrative power to autonomous local elected bodies (strongest), as intended by the 73rd/74th Amendments.

23. What is the 'gender development' concept of 'empowerment' as used by Naila Kabeer?

    Kabeer defines empowerment as the expansion of people's ability to make strategic life choices where that ability was previously denied. It has three interrelated dimensions: resources (preconditions), agency (process), and achievements (outcomes).

24. In movement studies, what is 'resource mobilization theory'?

    Resource mobilization theory (McCarthy and Zald) argues that social movements succeed not from grievances alone (which are constant) but from the ability to mobilize resources - money, members, organization, leadership, networks and political opportunities. It emphasizes rational organization (SMOs).

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