Section A

Part 2 - Democracy

"The will of the people practically means the will of the most numerous or the most active part of the people; the majority, or those who succeed in making themselves accepted as the majority; the people, consequently, may desire to oppress a part of their number; and precautions are as much needed against this as against any other abuse of power. The limitation, therefore, of the power of government over individuals loses none of its importance when the holders of power are regularly accountable to the community, that is, to the strongest party therein. This view of things, recommending itself equally to the intelligence of thinkers and to the inclination of those important classes in European society to whose real or supposed interests democracy is adverse, has had no difficulty in establishing itself; and in political speculations “the tyranny of the majority” is now generally included among the evils against which society requires to be on its guard.
Like other tyrannies, the tyranny of the majority was at first, and is still vulgarly, held in dread, chiefly as operating through the acts of the public authorities. But reflecting persons perceived that when society itself is the tyrant – society collectively, over the separate individuals who compose it – its means of tyrannising are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries. Society can and does execute its own mandates; and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in connection with things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the Magistrate is not enough; there needs also protection against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideals and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development, and if possible, prevent the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon a model of its own. There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence; and to find that limit, and maintain it against encroachment, is as indispensable to a good condition of human affairs, as protection against political despotism"

John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty” 1859

Question 4
Which of the following cannot be inferred from the passage?

A Even those who are not sympathetic to democracy agree about the importance of the issue under consideration.

B There is no general agreement on the issue under consideration.

C The issue under consideration is more difficult to deal with through law than other issues relating to democratic practice.

D The issue under consideration is just as important an area of human freedom as any other in a democracy.

E The issue under consideration is not best understood as a matter of overt political oppression.

Question 5
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument of the passage?

A What can’t be rectified through political action should not be a matter for consideration in a political treatise.

B Minority concerns are automatically resolved in a general democratic process.

C The tyranny of the majority has proven to be a bigger problem than Mill realised in the 150 years since he wrote this essay.

D Members of a minority group in one context are quite often members of the majority in another context.

E The importance of minority groups is sometimes over-rated.

Question 6
Which of the following is most clearly implied in the passage?

A The tyranny of the majority is a concept concerning which there is much disagreement in a democracy.

B In a democracy, minority interests matter more than those of the majority.

C Minorities are important, but not as important as the majority.

D The rights of minority groups need to be safeguarded through legislation.

E Minority interests are more difficult to protect than the interests of the majority.

Answers for part 2