Which one of the following is NOT true of socialism?

Correct — B, It emphasises the centrality of community. The key treats community as the odd idea out among the four. The case for that reading is that socialism's own starting point is class — a society read through who owns the means of production and how its product is shared — and its remedy is common or social ownership. Where a doctrine puts community itself at the centre, as communitarianism and conservative organicism do, the community is the primary unit and everything else is derived from it; in socialism the co-operative and communal life is presented as the consequence of ending class division rather than as the axis of the theory. This is the most argued-over item on the 2020 paper, and the competing reading of option (c) is set out below; the official key marks (b), and the key header records that no item was dropped from this paper.

• (a)Socialists analyse society in terms of income distribution — Standardly presented as true of socialism, and especially of its social-democratic form, which reads society through how income and wealth are shared out and treats redistribution as the main instrument of reform.
• (c)Socialists believe that class divisions in society are a fact and therefore irremediable — This is the option a strict reading of socialism points to, and it is where most candidates went. Socialists do treat class division as a fact, but the second half is the opposite of what they hold — the whole tradition, from Owen and Fourier to Marx and the social democrats, exists on the claim that class division can be narrowed or abolished. The official key nevertheless marks (b), so learn both halves: socialism analyses by class, and it holds class division to be remediable.
• (d)It believes that material benefits should be distributed on the basis of need — True of socialism in its clearest formulation — from each according to ability, to each according to need — and distribution by need rather than by market outcome is one of the tradition's defining commitments.

Socialism is a family of doctrines rather than a single one. What its members share is opposition to an economy organised around private ownership and market distribution, a reading of society in terms of class, a preference for co-operation over competition, and a belief that human beings are shaped by their social conditions and can therefore be shaped differently. Where they part company is on method — revolutionary against evolutionary — and on how much ownership must actually be taken into common hands.

Be aware that this item is contested. Widely used textbook accounts of political ideologies list community among the core themes of socialism, alongside co-operation, equality, social class and common ownership, so on those accounts option (b) is true of socialism and option (c), with its claim that class division is beyond remedy, is the statement that is not. That is the reading most candidates and most published commentaries took. The official UPSC key for this paper marks (b), and the key header records no items dropped, so (b) is the answer that scored. Two things follow for a student. First, know the substance on both sides — that socialists put weight on community and co-operation, and that they regard class division as something history can end. Second, treat which is NOT true items in political theory with care, since they depend on which textbook's list of core themes the setter had in front of him.

• Socialism reads society through class, defined by the ownership of the means of production, and seeks common or social ownership as the remedy.
• Distribution according to need, rather than according to market outcome or desert, is one of the tradition's defining commitments.
• Socialists hold that class division is a historical product and can be narrowed or abolished, not that it is permanent.
• Revolutionary socialism looks to the overthrow of the existing order; social democracy looks to redistribution and welfare through parliamentary means.
• Communitarianism and conservative organicism are the doctrines that place the community itself at the centre of their theory.

• Reading a political-theory item as though every textbook drew the same list of core themes.
• Confusing the socialist analysis of class with the conservative acceptance of hierarchy.
• Assuming redistribution of income is the whole of socialism; common ownership is the deeper claim.

Ideology items in this paper are drawn from textbook lists of core themes, so the safest preparation is to learn each ideology's list as a list rather than to reason from first principles in the hall.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The principle 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs' is associated with

  • (a)classical liberalism
  • (b)socialism
  • (c)conservatism
  • (d)fascism

  Answer(b) socialism — it states the distributive principle of need rather than of market outcome or desert.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following best describes social democracy?

  • (a)Abolition of the state through revolution
  • (b)Redistribution and welfare pursued through parliamentary means
  • (c)Rule by a technocratic elite
  • (d)Complete withdrawal of the state from the economy

  Answer(b) Redistribution and welfare pursued through parliamentary means — the evolutionary rather than revolutionary route to socialist ends.