How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 Macpherson defends democracy as human development, not electoral procedure → modern theory has lost classical democracy’s moral purpose
Route 2 strength = restoring democracy’s moral core → open question = is his remedy realisable
empirical school attacked (Schumpeter → elites for votes / Dahl → group competition) → both reduce democracy to a market-equilibrium system → procedure, not emancipation; humanist aspiration weakened → classical moral foundation recalled (developmental process + emancipation) → liberal democracy’s self-image rejected (no liberal monopoly, not the perfect form) → property franchise, workers’ rights only after socialist pressure → liberalism historically undemocratic → communist / Third World systems may also qualify → core distinction: extractive vs developmental power → capitalism gives the propertied class both, workers keep minimal developmental power, lose creative freedom → ideal democracy: maximise developmental power, remove extractive power → three spheres: constitutional + socialist production + equality values → democracy not built on institutions alone
Norman Barry: the ideal is idealistic, hard to realise under scarcity → abolishing extractive power assumes conditions that rarely hold
Route 1 his worth lies in retrieval — democracy recovered as creative freedom and human development
Route 2 judged by feasibility the prescription falls short, but the moral recovery of democracy is his real contribution
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
Also asked on this head
Democracy — 11 questions in the Vault.
- The foundational base of western democracy has been
- Explain briefly the elite theory of democracy.
- Deliberative democracy seeks to promote democratic decision making about public issues among the citizens. Discuss
How this is taught
The same flow snapshot, built for every head of the syllabus, with the answer written in class.
The first session of Foundation 2027 is published in full.
Six programmes across three levels.
