PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Western Political Thought
John Stuart Mill is a ‘reluctant democrat’. – C. L. Wayper
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
defends representative government → but conditions democracy at every turn | → Wayper's 'reluctant democrat’ → captures caution, not commitment representative government is his best practicable form → yet refuses unqualified majority rule → Wayper names this hesitation
Body flow
best practicable form (society too complex for direct rule) → also educative (reason, judgement, political efficacy) → but democracy no free gift → fitness via civic culture + education → benevolent despotism for colonies (India, China) → Tocqueville's fear: majority tyranny, mediocracy, mobocracy → safeguards: plural /weighted voting, educational filters, second chamber
Counter-view
radical-democratic strands pull back → women's suffrage, minority representation, broad participation, open voting, state education → not anti-democratic
Conclusion routes
reluctant only in scope, pace, institutional design → label fits hesitation, not faith champion of democracy, critic of crude majoritarianism → committed in principle, hesitant in form
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
