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Conclusion in 25/40 mark assess questions

I'm not entirely sure how to conclude the 'assess' questions for AS edexcel politics. 'To what extent' questions seem a lot easier. What exactly should I do? For the question "Assess the arguments in favour of greater use of direct democracy in the UK", would I simply summarise how strong each of the mentioned arguments are?
Original post by LennyBicknel
I'm not entirely sure how to conclude the 'assess' questions for AS edexcel politics. 'To what extent' questions seem a lot easier. What exactly should I do? For the question "Assess the arguments in favour of greater use of direct democracy in the UK", would I simply summarise how strong each of the mentioned arguments are?


I do EdExcel, but it's very similar in most exams across different subjects.

You're supposed to outline and explain arguments for the use of direct democracy, making that about 50 per cent of the paragraph, and the rest you should just evaluate and criticise the arguement. then, at the end, assess whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and vice versa.

e.g. direct democracy strengthens political participation by ensuring that citizens are directly involved in the policy- and decision-making process. however, they would how to devote a huge amount of time to politics. also, implementing such a system of politics would be incredibly difficult in modern, large societies - setting up polling stations and voting for every policy and decision would cripple the entire process. nonetheless, such practical issues can be overcome with online voting and e-democracy, and therefore, this argument in favour of direct democracy is particularly convincing.

hope I explained it okay!
Original post by popcornjpg
I do EdExcel, but it's very similar in most exams across different subjects.

You're supposed to outline and explain arguments for the use of direct democracy, making that about 50 per cent of the paragraph, and the rest you should just evaluate and criticise the arguement. then, at the end, assess whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and vice versa.

e.g. direct democracy strengthens political participation by ensuring that citizens are directly involved in the policy- and decision-making process. however, they would how to devote a huge amount of time to politics. also, implementing such a system of politics would be incredibly difficult in modern, large societies - setting up polling stations and voting for every policy and decision would cripple the entire process. nonetheless, such practical issues can be overcome with online voting and e-democracy, and therefore, this argument in favour of direct democracy is particularly convincing.

hope I explained it okay!


So are you saying I should have a 'final' conclusion at the end, or conclude at the end of each argument instead?
Original post by LennyBicknel
So are you saying I should have a 'final' conclusion at the end, or conclude at the end of each argument instead?


I do both. Make a final judgement at on a particular point in final paragraphs, and then make a more general judgement on the entire arguement in the conclusion.

In conclusion, while the arguments in favour of direct democracy raise some compelling points, most notably that it removes the public's dependency on self-serving professional politicians, the arguments against are ultimately more important. In particular the fact that large, modern societies could not cope with a system of direct democracy, and also that much of the public is uninformed and uneducated.

others may do it differently, but this works for me, and I've never failed to get an A on all practise papers. im sure the examiner will also appreciate such a cleanly structured essay!

(btw I'm making this as a seperate conclusion, not linked to the paragraph I showed you earlier).

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