PSIR 1A-7: Concept of Power – Previous Year Questions & Answers

Model Answers to PYQs (2019-2024)

1] Comment on linkage between Power and Hegemony [2024/10m/150w/1e]

The concepts of power and hegemony are quite intertwined with each other. The term power suggests an ability to influence others’ beliefs or actions, often to achieve a specific goal. On similar lines, hegemony, as developed by Marxist scholar Gramsci, denotes a dominance of one group, class, or state over others, often maintained through a mix of consent and coercion.

Hegemony, in fact, is a medium through which power is generated, maintained and exercised. While power can be direct and coercive, hegemony works on a subtler level, on the level of mind. It makes subjects adopt certain values and beliefs willingly through cultural and ideological influence. Thus, the subjugation feels natural and even for the good of subjects.

The concept of hegemony as explained by Gramsci remains important in our understanding of power. It was through this hegemony only that upper castes were able to maintain their dominance for millennia in Indian society, and the same hegemony was responsible for exercise of power by the British on Indians for almost two centuries. [172 words]

2] Legitimacy adds positive value to political authority and obligation. Discuss. [2024/20m/250w/4a]

Legitimacy is defined as the ‘consent of the governed’. Although simple by definition, legitimacy is a quintessential characteristic for any exercise of power to be perceived as just and fair.

Legitimacy gives moral and societal justification to the governing power. Only when authority is perceived as legitimate, do people voluntarily comply with the state. Thus, legitimacy supports authority by affirming the ruler’s right to govern.

This concept of legitimacy was also used by Weber in explaining why revolution did not take place as Marx expected. Weber held that despite Marx’s explanation, since people consider the exercise of power by the state as legitimate, revolution did not take place in capitalist societies.

Apart from supporting authority, legitimacy also furthers a sense of political obligation. When the state is seen as legitimate, citizens themselves feel a moral duty to obey the law and support the state. Such contribution can be seen in multiple forms such as payment of taxes, voting, civic engagement etc.

On the other hand, when the legitimacy is lacking, political authority can quickly become unstable. It can lead to increased opposition, civil unrest and in extreme cases, even revolts. The key reason behind the violent French revolt was indeed loss of legitimacy of state in the eyes of masses.

Further, lack of legitimacy also weakens political obligation. If people do not view the authority as legitimate, they are less likely to feel obligated to follow laws or support the government. This undermines the social contract and weakens loyalty to the state. The Gandhian non-cooperation, and civil disobedience movements reflect such aspects of obligation.

Thus, legitimacy adds a substantial value to authority and obligation, and is essential for the state to be able to maintain these. [286 words]

3] Foucault’s concept of power [2023/10m/150w/1d]

Foucault rejected the traditional view of power as something possessed by certain individuals or institutions. Instead, he saw power as a pervasive and diffuse force that operates at all levels of society. Power, according to Foucault, is not a fixed entity but a dynamic and constantly shifting phenomenon.

Foucault argued that power is not solely repressive; it is also productive. Power doesn’t just limit or suppress individuals; it shapes and constructs their identities, behaviours, and social norms. Power generates knowledge and discourse, defining what is considered “normal” and “deviant.”

Foucault introduced the concept of the “power/knowledge” nexus, suggesting that power and knowledge are closely intertwined. Knowledge is not an objective and neutral pursuit but is shaped by power dynamics. Those in positions of power have the ability to shape what counts as “truth” and “knowledge.”

His famous example of the panopticon, a prison design where a single guard can observe all prisoners without them knowing when they are being watched, illustrates the disciplinary power that exists in modern societies. Foucault also introduced the concepts of “bio-power” and “governmentality” to explain how modern states and institutions exert power over populations.

Foucault analyzed how power operates through discursive practices—language, knowledge, and systems of classification. He explored how categories, labels, and definitions are used to exercise control and establish norms. These discourses contribute to the formation of identities and social hierarchies.

Foucault’s concept of power has had a profound impact on contemporary understandings of power dynamics and social structures. It challenges traditional notions of power as a top-down, repressive force and highlights the ways in which power operates within the fabric of everyday life, shaping knowledge, identities, and societal norms. [278 words]

4] Write on the Bases of Power. [2022/10m/150w/1d]

In 1959, John R. P. French and Bertram H. Raven proposed one of the most widely cited analyses of social power. They defined social influence as a change in the belief, attitude, or behavior of a person (the target of influence) which results from the action of another person (an influencing agent).

They also defined social power as the potential for such influence, that is, the ability of the agent to bring about such a change using available resources. French and Raven identified five bases of power: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and referent. To this was later added a sixth: information power.

The bases of power differ according to the manner in which social changes are implemented, the permanence of such changes, and the ways in which each basis of power is established and maintained.

The bases of powers are:

• Legitimate – This comes from the belief that a person has the formal right to make demands, and to expect others to be compliant and obedient.
• Reward – This results from one person’s ability to compensate another for compliance.
• Expert – This is based on a person’s high levels of skill and knowledge.
• Referent – This is the result of a person’s perceived attractiveness, worthiness and right to others’ respect.
• Coercive – This comes from the belief that a person can punish others for noncompliance.
• Informational – This results from a person’s ability to control the information that others need to accomplish something.

As long as humans have had to interact with one another, they have utilized power strategies, and in various degrees the strategies have been effective even when an agent has had no formal knowledge of the bases of social power. The model tells us how the process of power operates and the conditions under which social influence is more or less effective. [299 words]

5] Political ideology is primarily concerned with the allocation and utilization of Power.” Comment. [2021/15m/200w/3c]

Ideology may be defined as ‘a systematic set of arguments and beliefs used to justify an existing or desired social order’. Ideological power represents the manipulative power of the dominant class which holds sway on the thinking and emotions of the people.

When people are made to believe that a particular system of government is the best system, they will not be inclined to challenge the authority of the ruling classes. When people have learnt to respect their laws, the need for coercion to secure their obedience would be eliminated or at any rate, minimized.

Political ideology involves not only a set of beliefs; but is always action-oriented. It puts forward a ’cause’ for which people are prepared not only to fight but to make a lot of sacrifices. As Alan Ball has elaborated: “Individuals are prepared to fight for causes, often realistically hopeless causes, or to undergo ill-treatment and torture in the belief that some political values are superior to others.”

Marx and Engels noted that ‘the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas’. According to them the class which owns the means of material production in any society also controls the means of mental production. Antonio Gramsci gave the concept of ‘hegemony’ to explain the phenomenon of ideological domination, particularly of the capitalist class, in the contemporary society. Hegemony, in this sense, denotes a form of rule where power is apparently exercised with the consent of the ruled. 

Politics is concerned with a struggle for power to control public affairs, that is, to have access to positions of taking decisions for the allocation of public goods, services, opportunities and honours. Political ideology provides legitimacy to the ruling classes and helps them maintain their stronghold on political power which gives them the control over the public affairs. [303 words]

6] Comment on tools of legitimating of the State [2021/10m/150w/1d]

Legitimacy refers to the quality of an act or arrangement which is regarded as lawful by those affected by it. The state gets authority when its power has legitimacy.

In the early days of the state, when the ‘divine right of the king’ was in vogue, religion was the tool for legitimising the state. The works of Hugo Grotius, Hobbes and Samuel Pufendorf brought in the idea of ‘consent’ as a source of legitimacy. In the modern world, with ‘Lockean’ liberal ideals, the social contract and the protection of natural rights gave legitimacy to the state. This view was criticised by the likes of Burke, calling consent ‘wishful thinking’.

With the utilitarian view, the source of legitimising was the beneficial consequences of the state for people. It was followed by ‘public reason and democratic approval’. Today, the state attains popular allegiance by securing its citizens’ welfare and simultaneously enabling checks to be placed on its own power by bringing in a constitution.

Machiavelli told his Prince that power lasts as long as the Prince, but the authority would transcend him, keeping the state stable. Only in the absence of legitimacy, the state is compelled to become tyrannical to save itself. [200 words]

7] Examine the nature and meaning of power. [2020/15m/200w/3b]

It was his focus on the power that made Machiavelli the first modern thinker and the power became the prime variable of political analysis, after him.

The most well-known definition of power is given by Robert Dahl that ‘A has power over B to the extent that A can get B to do something which B would not otherwise do’. With this, Dahl attributes power to individuals, and the substance of power is domination over others.

This understanding, however is challenged by many streams of thought.

Marxists view power as emerging from the substructure of relations of production, and feminists understand that power is located within the structures of patriarchy. Hence, power belongs not just to an individual but to a group or a structure. For a Marxist, the nature of power is exploitation, and for a feminist, it is the oppression and subjugation of women.

Hannah Arendt locates power in a community. According to her, power generates when people act and communicate together in a shared enterprise. Her power is not just domination but an enhanced capacity emerging from collective action.

On the other hand, for Foucault, power is not repressive but productive and does not emanates from a single source but flows in the capillary of the society.

With the change and evolution of the state, the meaning and nature of power keep on evolving. [227 words]

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