Evaluate the impact of social and cultural policies in one authoritarian state.

The question requires that candidates make an appraisal of social and cultural policies, weighing up their strengths and limitations or otherwise. Candidates may offer equal coverage of social and cultural policies, or they may prioritize their evaluation of one over the other. However, both aspects will be a feature of the response. Candidates may evaluate the impact of social policies that had significant impact such as the Literacy Campaign in Cuba. Conversely, candidates may wish to evaluate social reforms with uneven impact. For example, China’s 1950 Marriage Law forbade arranged marriages and concubinage, yet these restrictions were often ignored in rural areas. It would be valid for candidates to comment on the difficulty of appraising the real impact of social policies, such as compulsory youth groups, where participants may have outwardly conformed. The role of censorship and control of the arts, such as Nyerere's ban on foreign music, may also provide material for discussion. Candidates may also consider the extent to which artists embraced states themes such as Stalin’s Socialist Realism, or Nasser’s Pan-Arabism and Anti-imperialism. Candidates may propose that while policies may not have achieved social and cultural targets, they may have met political objectives, such as China’s Cultural Revolution. Candidates’ opinions or conclusions will be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.

The question required that candidates make an appraisal of social and cultural policies in one state, weighing up their strengths and limitations or otherwise. Some responses to this question demonstrated good knowledge of the social and cultural policies implemented in the Cuba of Fidel Castro, Nazi Germany, the People's Republic of China, and the USSR under Stalin. However, most responses seen tended to focus upon social policies, with only limited attention paid to cultural policies, although there were some relevant references to their impact upon the arts, literature and, in some cases, the cinema. For the most part, responses did include some evaluation of policies with judgements offered on how far they impacted society and culture.