The statement refers to:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) the interrelationship of Politics and Economics
Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key is (b). Option (c) tempts because the law is made to depend on the distribution of economic power, but the dependence is hedged ('corresponds', 'in a general way') and the same sentence has the state controlling the society, so the statement describes a mutual relationship rather than the dominance of economics over politics. In the exam, read the whole sentence: the crux must cover both clauses, not only the one that sounds strongest.
The state's laws answer the demands it faces; those demands depend, in a general way, on how economic power is spread in a society that the state in turn controls. Each side shapes the other, so the statement is about the interrelationship of politics and economics.
- ✗ (a) Nothing sets politics and economics against each other.
- ✓ (b) Legal imperatives 'correspond to' demands that 'depend ... upon' the distribution of economic power in a society 'which the state controls': economics shapes the law, and the state controls the society — a two-way link.
- ✗ (c) The dependence is only 'in a general way', the verb is 'corresponds', and the same sentence has the state controlling the society; a relationship is described, not the dominance of one side over the other.
- ✗ (d) The statement makes law answer to economic power, not economic power to law.
Remember · When a text says X corresponds to Y 'in a general way' and keeps both sides active, choose 'relationship'; 'predominance' needs an outright claim that one side dominates.
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2016, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·