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PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Comment: “In so far as national events are decided, the ‘power elite’ are those who decide them.”

  • UPSC 2002
  • 20 marks
  • Concept of Power, Hegemony, Ideology and Legitimacy

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The line comes from the opening chapter of C. Wright Mills's The Power Elite (1956). It follows his definition of the elite as the political, economic and military circles that, as an intricate set of overlapping cliques, share decisions of national consequence. The claim is a radical, historical one: in postwar America, power lay in…

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What the full answer covers

  • Unpacking the Claim
  • The Strongest Case
  • Where Mills Stands
  • Critiques
  • Indian Relevance
  • Conclusion
PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions

PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions

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