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PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Illustrate from contemporary Indian experience the theory of circulation of elites.

  • UPSC 1995
  • Caste, Religion and Ethnicity in Indian Politics

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Vilfredo Pareto held that a minority always rules and that history is the replacement of one governing elite by another. Elites stay alive by absorbing talent from below; when they close ranks, a counter-elite mobilises the masses and replaces them. Indian democracy shows all of these processes, but through elections rather than revolution.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Replacement: A New Social Base
  • Absorption: Keeping the Elite Open
  • Lions and Foxes
  • Counter-elites from Outside
  • Blocked Circulation
  • Limits of the Fit
  • …and 1 more sections, with a conclusion
PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions

PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions

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