PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Political Theory — meaning and approaches
Comment on decline of political theory. (150 words)
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 mid-20th-century death verdict — ironic against Sabine’s “perennial concern’. R2 the positivist- behavioural turn dismisses normative philosophy.
Body flow
Laslett /Dahl pronounce it dead — Easton's four causes: historicism – moral relativism (Hume-Weber) — science-theory confusion — hyper-factualism.
Counter-view
Berlin: theory cannot perish while rational curiosity lives — permanent human concerns keep it alive.
Conclusion routes
R1 not death but a crisis of a historicist, value-neglecting theory. R2 the debate itself cleared the ground for revival (post-behaviouralism. Rawls).
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
