PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Political Theory — meaning and approaches
Elucidate the meanings inherent in the term ‘political’ with appropriate illustrations.
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 ‘political’ an essentially contested concept — Greek polis — Aristotle's “political animal”. R2 binding collective decisions under disagreement → the “Art of the Possible”.
Body flow
Art of government — public affairs (Arendt) — compromise /consensus (Locke) — power (Leftwich) → friend-enemy (Schmitt) — authoritative allocation of values (Easton) → hegemony (Gramsci) → political economy (Marx).
Counter-view
Institutional view too narrow; Schmitt overstates antagonism; too broad a view dissolves the ‘political’ into the ‘social’.
Conclusion routes
R1 meanings overlap, not exclude — a layered field of power, values, institutions, choices. R2 the contestation
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
