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GAMSAT Section 2 quote prompts: Power

2 GAMSAT-style prompts on power. Each gives you five comments that disagree, so your job is to find the tension and argue a clear position. Give yourself about 30 minutes per essay.

Task A · ArgumentPrompt 1 of 2

Consider the following comments on power.

  • Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    Lord Acton

  • Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

    Abraham Lincoln

  • The measure of a man is what he does with power.

    Plato

  • It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it.

    Aung San Suu Kyi

Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.

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Task A · ArgumentPrompt 2 of 2

Consider the following comments on power.

  • Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    Lord Acton

  • Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

    Abraham Lincoln

  • The measure of a man is what he does with power.

    Plato

  • Power does not corrupt so much as it reveals, by removing the restraints that once disguised the person beneath.

  • We fear the tyrant who seizes power, yet hand far more of it, far more willingly, to those who promise to keep us safe.

Write a piece in response to one or more of these comments. Your essay will be assessed on the quality of your argument and the way you express it.

A way into this prompt

Argue that power is best understood not as a poison that corrupts the innocent but as a solvent that dissolves the restraints which previously concealed a person's character. Begin by acknowledging the Actonian warning, that unchecked authority has a long record of debasing those who wield it. Then refine it: power may corrupt some, but it more reliably exposes everyone, since the powerful can finally act on impulses the weak were merely forced to suppress. A strong third move shifts from the holders of power to its grantors, asking why societies so readily surrender authority to anyone promising security. Caution: avoid the fatalistic conclusion that all power inevitably corrupts, since that despair excuses us from building the very checks that make power survivable.

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More themes to practise

AcceptanceAgeingAmbitionAngerArtArtificial intelligenceAuthorityAutomationBeautyBelonging
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