UPSC CSAT Quiz – 2021: IASbaba’s Daily CSAT Practice Test – 4th February 2021

Jacob and Jaanu together can do a piece of work in 20 days, Jacob having worked for 14 days, Jaanu finishes the remaining work in 26 days. Doing alone, in how many days does Jaanu finishes the whole work?

The price of a pen is first increased by 25% and later on the price was decreased by 20% due to reduction in sales. Find the net percentage change in the final price of pen.

The average weight of 45 students in a class is 52 kg. 5 of them whose average weight is 48 kg leave the class and other 5 students whose average weight is 54 kg join the class. What is the new average weight of the class?

Fresh grapes contain 80% of water and dry grapes contain 20% of water. If the weight of dry grapes were 250 kg. What was its total weight when it was fresh?

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow the passage. Your answer to these questions should be based on passage only.

The power perspective sees democracy as an effort to balance social power. History is a chronicle of societies where social power has been concentrated in a few hands. Democracy proposes that social power be distributed as widely and evenly as possible and, where it must be concentrated, it is made constitutionally answerable to those over whom it is exercised. Not surprisingly, the power perspective on democracy is concerned with institutions, constitutions, and other formal arrangements that impose structure and balance on social power relationships. It sees power as an essentially competitive phenomenon: we all seek more power to pursue our own interests.

The participation perspective sees democracy as an activity through which citizens participate in their community. Participation is considered a basic human need, a natural outgrowth of our social nature. Public life in general and political activity in particular, allows us to partake in and shape a larger world beyond ourselves. Furthermore, democratic activity enables us to better understand and develop (or “actualize”) ourselves through active relationships with other people. Power is seen as a cooperative, rather than competitive phenomenon – something we get by working together. From this participatory perspective, democracy is something we do and live, not something we have or make. Improving our “living democracy” is a matter of developing and using democratic forums and learning democratic skills.

The intelligence perspective sees democracy as a factor that supports the exercise of collective intelligence. By collective Intelligence I mean a group’s or society’s capacity to respond, collectively, to its changing circumstances; to make creative use of opportunities; to articulate and pursue visions and purposes; and to evolve as a culture. Authoritarian groups can be no more intelligent than their leaders. Such groups tend to be less intelligent than democratic groups because excess power tends to distort the powerholders’ ability to think and feel clearly and appropriately. Furthermore, authoritarian systems tend to neglect or suppress the potential contributions of non-leaders.

While the power perspective on democracy focuses on institutions – and the participation perspective focuses on the democratic arts – the intelligence perspective focuses on collective dynamics and learning in groups, communities and whole societies. All three perspectives combined can provide us with an in-depth, 3-D, vibrantly alive sense of what democracy is all about.

Democratic institutions provide scope to collective intelligence. An example of this would be