Following or even in the introduction (especially if the word limit is small) you want to do a summary of other people’s conclusions to this question. This is called a literary review. It does not have to be a long summary, but it needs to show you’ve engaged with the argument beyond your own opinion and you have understood the different points of view from other scholars. It is very important that you engage with genuine scholars in this. Do not just use the web or blogs or Wiki (another article is coming on how to use Wikipedia). Make sure the people you review are properly certified in their field, ideally with published work and a PhD in that area. This section must be well referenced with accurate footnotes and page numbers showing that you have actually looked up these scholars yourself. In a longer thesis the literary review will need to be extensive. In my MPhil my Literary Review was close to 25,000 words. In a short essay you may only be able to use 100-200 words.