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Edexcel A2 Government and Politics May/June 2012

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Original post by Spunky_Monkey
The fact that Germany have taken the lead role in the Euro crisis and countries like greece have to just accepted it when they didn't vote for any of it. IMF ECB and European commission inside the greek govt as it stands atm. The rise in technocracies around European national governments. The switch in emphasis to the council and how europe is being held to account on a national level, i.e Francois Hollande being voted in, the whole Greek thing, Netherlands etc


Sorry, but how exactly would the question be phrased? I wouldn't think they'd make it too narrow like "describe the current state of the democratic deficit in relation to the eurozone crisis" would they?


Original post by toulaa11
Im actually dreading this exam, already considering clearing because of this :|


yeah you're not alone, it's just so much content. philosophy is supposed to be one of the hardest subjects, and I'm finding this much more difficult :/
Reply 421
ahh, and we've got less than 3 weeks, :frown:
Original post by toulaa11
ahh, and we've got less than 3 weeks, :frown:


It's very worrying when you put it that way lol...
Try doing this, do one 45 mark essay and 15 mark question for both Britain and Europe everyday until the exam and try to remember the points. You would get a lot done like that!
Original post by FullMetalX
Sorry, but how exactly would the question be phrased? I wouldn't think they'd make it too narrow like "describe the current state of the democratic deficit in relation to the eurozone crisis" would they?



It definitely wouldn't be describe because thats just narrative. Something like the Eurozone crisis has exacerbated the arguments for reducing the democratic deficit in Europe.. Discus.

Then you'd go on about all the stuff I said earlier, how the ECB have become major players but they're not elected, how the commission is still undemocratic and future integration would mean even more need for reform, Lisbon treaty improvements etc. You only need four or five points for a 45 mark question you just bull**** it out for a page haha
Original post by Spunky_Monkey
It definitely wouldn't be describe because thats just narrative. Something like the Eurozone crisis has exacerbated the arguments for reducing the democratic deficit in Europe.. Discus.

Then you'd go on about all the stuff I said earlier, how the ECB have become major players but they're not elected, how the commission is still undemocratic and future integration would mean even more need for reform, Lisbon treaty improvements etc. You only need four or five points for a 45 mark question you just bull**** it out for a page haha



Yeah, that question sounds good, you would be able to talk about the democratic deficit in the institutions as well the democratic deficit caused by eurozone crisis, so it's not narrow.
Could you possibly explain or maybe link me to some article that explains the whole troika in Greece, I don't fully understand who they are, how and why they were appointed ect. There's also Papademos, what's his significance. They did have elections in Greece now, so would that be a point in favor of democracy?
Original post by FullMetalX
Yeah, that question sounds good, you would be able to talk about the democratic deficit in the institutions as well the democratic deficit caused by eurozone crisis, so it's not narrow.
Could you possibly explain or maybe link me to some article that explains the whole troika in Greece, I don't fully understand who they are, how and why they were appointed ect. There's also Papademos, what's his significance. They did have elections in Greece now, so would that be a point in favor of democracy?


Im not really up to date with greece at the moment ill have a read into it over the weekend. The main thing to consider is that national parliaments are being held to account for EU decisions - you could also bring this in to demonstrate how the EU isn't federal and is more confederal because of this - if a question on federalism came up.
Reply 426
which topics do you guys think you're going to do?
Reply 427
does anyone have any good up to date notes on law and order ? because all the text books i have are out of date and even the articles.. :| am doomed :frown: LOL
Original post by toulaa11
does anyone have any good up to date notes on law and order ? because all the text books i have are out of date and even the articles.. :| am doomed :frown: LOL


Aww, I'm most behind on law and order as well. I'm ok with Welfare, less ok with environment, but doomed for law and order. And I'm not even going to bother studying economic policy.

Edit: Oh yeah, here are some up-to-date policies organised nicely. Good luck, just search around. As long as you put in effort (even starting now) and don't give up, you'll do fine.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 429
Original post by FullMetalX
Aww, I'm most behind on law and order as well. I'm ok with Welfare, less ok with environment, but doomed for law and order. And I'm not even going to bother studying economic policy.

Edit: Oh yeah, here are some up-to-date policies organised nicely. Good luck, just search around. As long as you put in effort (even starting now) and don't give up, you'll do fine.


Your soo assuring ... Thank youu :smile: hopefully you'll do well too ! I'm actually gana put my heart in for unit 4 .. And do my best for unit 3 :/


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Original post by toulaa11
Your soo assuring ... Thank youu :smile: hopefully you'll do well too ! I'm actually gana put my heart in for unit 4 .. And do my best for unit 3 :/


That's the spirit!! :]

Are you guys covering everything in Europe, even Justice and Home Affairs, and Common Fisheries Policy? Those are two domestic european policies they haven't asked about yet, so what is the likelihood that it'll come up? Does anyone actually know what domestic policy areas have a big chance of coming up?
I'm doing this exam too and will hopefully start revision tomorrow on it.

If anyone is interested, this is a brilliant website to prepare - http://globalgovpol.blogspot.co.uk/p/examinations.html

It has all the past questions from the past 4 years, groups them into categories and even has comments from examiners. Plus it explains how one should go about answering the questions.
Reply 432
For Gov and Politics Unit 3, my class and I studied ideologies. The ideologies are all quite easy to revise for, as there are plenty of books on each one

For Labour, there's a book called "The End of the Party" which summarizes the rise and fall of New Labour, whilst "Speak for Britain" sums up Labour from its early days. For Conservatism, there's "Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes, but it's a mammoth book to try and read.

From the way lessons were done, names and stances on particular areas must be revised, because it's very likely a question could come up asking someone what one party's stance on something is, and you'd have to cite names and examples.

For Unit 4, my class and I studied the EU and for those of you who need help on this area, I suppose the key areas of EU Political Issues that must be revised include

1.) Impact of the EU on the UK (party divides on EU and constitutional impact)

2.) European integration (widening/deepening, losses/gains in sovereignty)

3.) EU institutions (democratic deficit/balance of power amongst institutions)

4.) Domestic policy issues (CAP, fisheries policies, social justice)

My teacher gave my class and I a list of questions from past papers for each of those 4 areas and if someone has any need for those questions, just reply to this post and I'll be happy to oblige :smile:

Good luck with revision everybody
Anyone got any predictions for UNIT 4 on Thursday 14th June 2012? I have no idea what the 15 markers could throw up, but I'm banking on North-South divide for the essays. Does anyone else have a feeling that war and conflict could be due to drop out because they've asked all the obvious questions such as the terrorism, 'clash of civilisations' and whether nuclear weapons are peaceful or not.

As for human rights, has anyone got any predictions here? I'm lost. Humanitarian intervention, and the extent to which human rights are protected recently came up.

Thoughts? Only 16 days to go until this exam! :redface:
Reply 434
Hey, this looks like a good thread! :smile:.
What does everyone think will come up as the economy question for unit 3?
Original post by Duncan123
Hey, this looks like a good thread! :smile:.
What does everyone think will come up as the economy question for unit 3?


Random question, but do you go to WH college?
Reply 436
I'm not feeling amazing about these exams, I find Unit 3 good and alright but I'm not looking forward to Unit 4, I don't like the International Development section it's just seems more tricky to understand than the others. I also need to work on synopticity which just seems to evade me at times when under pressure writing essays.
Reply 437
Original post by FullMetalX
Random question, but do you go to WH college?


Haha, yes I do. How did you know?
Original post by AGumby
I'm not feeling amazing about these exams, I find Unit 3 good and alright but I'm not looking forward to Unit 4, I don't like the International Development section it's just seems more tricky to understand than the others. I also need to work on synopticity which just seems to evade me at times when under pressure writing essays.


What's this about synopticity?
Reply 439
You know, where you have to mesh all of the sections together so you combine and mention within your essays, like for example mentioning about the role of global institutions when talking about tackling climate change. I'm probably simplifying it too much but my teachers go on about it all the time.
(edited 11 years ago)

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