A2 aqa gov +politics

Me and my politics group, and our two politics teachers, thought it was a very tricky paper - I did Constitution and Supreme Court, wasn't too fazed by the 30 markers but thought the 10 markers were surprising

I quite liked it...I answered the Executive and the Supreme Court sections, so fingers crossed for August!

Well the fact it was general limited government I thought gave you the scope to talk about other things, but I mainly concentrated on federalism, yes. I basically argued that whilst the theory of the Constitution - such as implied federalism and the separation of powers - encourages limited government, largely because it encourages many checks and balances and also divided government, which prevents central government becoming too dominative, in practice big government has become increasingly common due to the vast changes that the nation has undergone since the Constitution was written. (i.e. Wall Street crash, more states, higher population, greater communication so more of a feeling of national rather than state identity). But yes it was effectively federalism. I also mentioned that because the Constitution encourages federalism, it has multiple access points, so the fact that pressure groups can get invovled (bit of synopticity) on behalf of the citizens, and the fact that there's a distinct lack of party discipline in the US so members are free to be manipulated by outside influences, means that central government finds it difficult to build a cohesive agenda against the states, and therefore limited government is encouraged. But I concluded that in reality, the nation has changed too much, and the trend is towards greater levels of big government, party due to the two party system which encourages a 'two conflicting ways of life' mindset, thus one party advocates big gov, and one limited gov, but despite Bush being a Republican, he still presided over a big government, proof that limited government is becoming outdated.