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
democracy authorises power through consent → but contemporary success needs that power held within limits → Locke: government protects rights, bound by law, "where law ends, tyranny begins" restraint, not the mandate alone, is the real test → self-limitation = the harder half of democracy
Body flow
authorise vs restrain (democracy authorises / constitutionalism restrains, both needed) → Zakaria: constitutionalism distinct, elections outrunning restraint → oppressive majority → Madison: oblige government to control itself → rule of law: government under law, minorities/dissenters protected → Diamond: "steel frame" against elected autocrats → separation of powers (Montesquieu): branches limit each other → pluralism (Dahl): power dispersed across press, opposition, civil society
Counter-view
self-limitation # self-weakening → Bartels: backsliding is elite-driven loosening of self-limits → Holmes: restraining arbitrary power raises state capacity → Ambedkar: political democracy must rest on social & economic democracy → limit arbitrary power, not positive purpose
Conclusion routes
state binds itself by law, divides authority, accepts plural checks → majorities rule without tyranny limited power and effective power are not opposites → the democracies that endure are those that restrain themselves
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
