Discuss the significance of a normative approach to political theory.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 asks “what ought to be”, not “what is” → Plato/Aristotle as founders.
Route 2 facts alone cannot give politics its point — values do.
Links politics with ethics (Cohen) → standards of justice, liberty, equality → checks mere technique → actual vs ideal keeps reform alive → revival: Rawls → Macpherson, Dworkin, Sen.
Subjectivity, abstractness, utopianism; Berlin’s value pluralism doubts one final moral order.
Route 1 empirical explains what is; normative says what is worth pursuing.
Route 2 the revival after Rawls proves it indispensable.
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
Also asked on this head
Political Theory — 10 questions in the Vault.
- Comment on decline of political theory. (150 words)
- Comment on Post-Behavioural approach. (150 words)
- Examine the importance of behavioural approach in political theory. What led to its decline?
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.