UPSC 2024 Essay · 125 marks
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
What a top answer must contain
These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this topic — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.
- Source: Abraham Lincoln — attribute correctly; misattribution costs more than omission
- Psychological evidence: Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment, Milgram, Kipnis's 'power corrupts' studies, Keltner's power paradox
- Historical: Ashoka after Kalinga as the counter-case; Napoleon and Robespierre as the confirming ones
- Indian political-administrative: discretionary power and probity, 2nd ARC on ethics in governance, Lokpal, RTI as an antidote to unaccountable power
- Philosophical: Plato's ring of Gyges, Acton's dictum, Gandhi's trusteeship, Kautilya's surveillance of officials
- Institutional response: checks and balances as the structural answer — power tested by design, not only by character
The band thresholds and the pre-scored sample answers behind this standard stay private — they are the calibration your copy is placed against.
Now write it, and find out what you actually scored
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