SECTION A
Essay
125 marks
With greater power comes greater responsibility.
WRITE IN
90 min
1,000–1,200 words
Reading the topic
The line, popularised by the Spider-Man comics, says that the more power one holds, the greater one's duty to use it well. The deeper reading is that power is a trust held on behalf of others, so its legitimacy depends on accountability, restraint and service, whether the holder is a parent, an official, a corporation or a nation.
ThesisPower is morally legitimate only when it grows together with answerability, so every gain in power must be matched by firmer duties and checks.
Dimensions to cover
- 1Individual: a doctor, teacher or parent holds power over the vulnerable, so their duty of care rises with the dependence of those they serve
- 2State: a government with a large majority faces fewer political checks, which makes courts, a free press and audit bodies more necessary, not less
- 3Corporations: firms controlling information, data or essential supplies shape millions of lives and so owe duties beyond shareholders
- 4Global order: permanent members of the UN Security Council hold a veto, and their failure to prevent atrocities shows power without responsibility
- 5Science: those who can edit genes or build autonomous weapons carry a special duty to weigh consequences before acting
- 6Self-restraint: the highest form of responsibility is voluntary limits on one's own power, as constitutional rulers accept
Counter-view
- A realist reply is that power tends to serve itself and responsibility is a pious hope. The essay should accept this tendency and argue that responsibility must therefore be institutionalised through checks, not left to virtue alone
Open and close
- Open: Open with Plato's shepherd Gyges, who finds a ring that makes him invisible and uses it to seduce a queen and seize a throne, and ask what any of us would do with such power
- Close: End by arguing that the true test of power is not what it can do but what it chooses not to do
Where marks usually go
- Writing a light essay around the Spider-Man line without moving to states, institutions and global power
- Treating responsibility as personal virtue only and ignoring checks such as courts, audits and elections
- Confining the essay to politicians and missing professional, corporate and technological power
Examples that fit
- ThinkerLord Acton warned that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely, explaining why responsibility needs external checks.Lord Acton, letter to Mandell Creighton, 1887
- HistoryAfter the bloodshed of the Kalinga war, Ashoka renounced conquest and turned to dhamma, a ruler choosing responsibility at the height of power.Ashoka's Major Rock Edict XIII
- ThinkerPlato's myth of the Ring of Gyges asks whether a man who could act unseen would stay just, testing power without accountability.Plato, The Republic, Book II
- CaseThe 2005 UN World Summit endorsed the Responsibility to Protect, recasting sovereignty as a duty to protect populations from mass atrocities.UN World Summit Outcome Document, 2005, paragraphs 138-139