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PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Explain how Machiavelli’s application of empirical method to human affairs marks an important stage in the evolution of political science.

  • UPSC 2014
  • 20 marks
  • Western Political Thought

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Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was the first modern thinker to build a theory of politics from how rulers and peoples actually behave rather than from how they ought to. Grounding The Prince (written 1513, published 1532) and the Discourses on Livy (1531) in history and observation, he moved political inquiry out of moral theology — a…

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

  • The Tradition He Left Behind
  • Elements of His Empirical Method
  • Why This Marks a Stage
  • Limits of the Claim
  • Conclusion
PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions

PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions

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