DHS 2025 Control and Responsibility (Lecture Notes)

1 Name: Civics Group: 6C GCE Advanced Level | General Paper T1W9 and W10: Control and Responsibility Overview of lectures • Acquiring distinctions in your question analysis • Examining value & importance, power • Control & responsibility • Examining change & continuity Control and Responsibility • Providing a framework to help unpack questions tackling ceding control vs taking on responsibility – e.g. what happens when there’s too much or too little control in society? Who’s to blame when things go wrong? When do we take responsibility? • These two concepts of control and responsibility are complementary and are not negative in themselves; depending on the context, one might want more control or less. • However, if there is too much control, or we have taken on too much responsibility, that’s when we start seeking the other side of the loop: Essential questions guiding this lecture: Part 1 Part 2 1. What is control? 2. Who controls? 3. Why control? 4. Should we control? 1. What is responsibility? 2. Who is responsible? 3. Why allow for responsibility? ( and not control?) Relevant essay questions (list is non-exhaustive) ★ Should research into expensive medical treatments be allowed when only a few can afford them? [2008] ★ Should poorer countries develop their tourist industry when the basic needs of their own people are not being met? [2008] ★ ‘Only educated people should have the right to vote in elections.’ What is your view? [2009] ★ Should every country have the right to carry out unlimited scientific research? [2009] ★ How far can an individual be held responsible for crimes against humanity? [2009] ★ Should people be allowed to have children by artificial means? [2012] ★ How far, in your society, should unpopular views be open to discussion? [2013] ★ How far should firms be allowed to limit their workers’ rights when profits are at stake? [2014] ★ ‘Parents have no right to impose their own values and beliefs on their children.’ Discuss. [2015] ★ ‘Countries experiencing conflict should be left to sort out their own problems.’ How far DYA? [2016] ★ How far should a state have the right to monitor the actions of people within its borders? [2018] ★ ‘In a free society, there should be no restrictions on freedom of speech.’ Discuss. [2020] ★ ‘What an individual eats or drinks should not be the concern of the state.’ [2021] ★ To what extent can individuals shape their own lives when the world is so unpredictable? [2022] ★ Consider the argument that there should be no censorship of the arts in modern society. [2023] ★ Evaluate the measures taken in your society to deter crime and punish criminals. [2024] Positive Negative Positive Negative

2 Control 1. What is control? • {noun} the power to influence or direct people’s behaviour or the course of events • {verb} to determine the behaviour or supervise the running of Synonymous terms: jurisdiction, sway