PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Theories of the State
What is the Marxist and liberal approach towards the state? On what grounds are the theoretical differences between them premised? Explain.
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 both ask what the state is and whom it serves → opposite starting points: individual vs class liberalism from individual + consent → Marxism from class + mode of production → one root divide
Body flow
liberal: individual moral unit → consent, neutral umpire, rule of law → Locke (rights, property) → Rawls / Sen / Dworkin (opportunity) → Marxist: class not individual → state from private property + class division → Manifesto “committee of the bourgeoisie” → Lenin “organ of class rule” → Miliband instrumentalist vs Poulantzas relative autonomy → Gramsci hegemony (consent + coercion)
Counter-view
| neither places the state above class → liberal neutral umpire vs Marxist class- domination → no neutral ground, premises do not meet
Conclusion routes
‘onclusion routes @R1 difference is over where analysis begins → individual + neutral order vs class power + production contemporary tests (inequality, 2008 rescue, limits of welfare) keep both alive → umpire or guardian of the propertied order
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
