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CfE Higher Politics

Hi, I see that there was not a higher politics thread so I am creating this as one now. I was also just wondering if anyone had any tips/hints of what will be in the exam for higher politics this year and the best way to revise so much content?

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Reply 1
Does you know of evidence of Margret Thatcher being a classical liberal or have studied much about liberalism? Would help me in research for my assignment
Reply 2
what are the different sections in unit 2?
Reply 3
Section 2 - a question on the comparison of the UK judiciary vs the us judiciary is highly likely to come up so I'm pretty confident with that. That's because if you look at last years paper, you can see a constitutions question came up and an executive q came up. Since they can only ask about 4 topics in this section and since the specimen paper has a judiciary q, its very likely that it will come up. You can always go for a legislature comparison question if you want also.

For the first section I'm pretty confident a PAL question will come up alongside a democracy question. My teacher fancies the PAL q to pop up and seeing as she is always right about these things, I trust her.

The last section will include a dominant ideas q and the sociological model q, since last years was focused more on the media and the rational choice model.. The specimen also hints towards this. That's my logic anyway and its what I'll be concentrating on, hoped this helped.
Reply 4
yeah cheers that helps! Just wouldn’t over-predict even if you’re confident as this has gone really wrong for me in the past and you don’t want to be sitting in front of something you’ve not prepared for
Hi, does anyone have an example answer to a democracy question such as: Using the works of appropriate theorists, examine the key features of direct and representative democracy.
Reply 6
In my Unit 3 book a big part of it was Political Parties: learning about different parties and their history, especially the Conservative party - neoliberalism, Thatcherism and David Cameron...
Since this seemed to be such a big part I’m surprised there aren’t any past paper questions on it and that you haven’t mentioned it... Did you do this topic?
Original post by FCB11
Section 2 - a question on the comparison of the UK judiciary vs the us judiciary is highly likely to come up so I'm pretty confident with that. That's because if you look at last years paper, you can see a constitutions question came up and an executive q came up. Since they can only ask about 4 topics in this section and since the specimen paper has a judiciary q, its very likely that it will come up. You can always go for a legislature comparison question if you want also.

For the first section I'm pretty confident a PAL question will come up alongside a democracy question. My teacher fancies the PAL q to pop up and seeing as she is always right about these things, I trust her.

The last section will include a dominant ideas q and the sociological model q, since last years was focused more on the media and the rational choice model.. The specimen also hints towards this. That's my logic anyway and its what I'll be concentrating on, hoped this helped.


what are the "4 topics" that will can come up in section 2?
Reply 8
Only 3 this year, 2 were used last year.
thankyou! and so which three then?
and does anyone have any example essay question answers?
Original post by ACz09
Only 3 this year, 2 were used last year.
Reply 10
Original post by lunamorrissey
thankyou! and so which three then?
and does anyone have any example essay question answers?


Judiciary
Legislature
Powers of the president vs PM
Reply 11
They could ask you to compare both the uk and us legislature and theres enough to write a 12 marker on but im hoping judiciary will come up because its the only one in that section ive done haha. Yeah thats true 20 marker will be in section 1
Reply 12
It would be asked like any other question? Just because theres no 12 marker questions for it doesnt mean you cant write it as a 12marker. Take the question in the exemplar paper as an example. All you would do is leave out the intro and conclusion. Idk if this helps but im confused at what your teacher is getting at
Hi, for section 3 - dominate ideology of a political party, for example I am doing it on New Labour, do you discuss the impact of the dominant ideas of the party on its electoralperformance in one specific general election or in different years' elections? does this make sense? sorry! thankyou? i am not sure if this sent already sorry:frown:
Reply 14
Original post by lunamorrissey
Hi, for section 3 - dominate ideology of a political party, for example I am doing it on New Labour, do you discuss the impact of the dominant ideas of the party on its electoralperformance in one specific general election or in different years' elections? does this make sense? sorry! thankyou? i am not sure if this sent already sorry:frown:


Talk about the 3 elections 1997, 2001 and 2005 (All Blairs new labour).
Original post by ACz09
Talk about the 3 elections 1997, 2001 and 2005 (All Blairs new labour).

Thank you. Are you doing New Labour also? do you have an examples as all the information covered by my lecturer was on the 2010 election?
This is so helpful thank you! I am really struggling with section 2 as there is just so much to learn.
I have learnt UK vs US Judiciary, President vs Prime Minister's powers and their limits, and US vs UK constitution. But I have not done the legislative or government scrutiny. Which would you say is the easiest and quickest to learn? If i need to learn one?
Reply 17
For judiciary the question will be regarding citizens' rights I'm sure. I've tried writing that essay but only got one good paragraph for checks and balances, separation of power and parliamentary sovereignty.

Does anyone know what else you could write about regarding the role of the judiciary to guarantee citizens rights?
Reply 18
No problem! Thanks anyway. Do you think its possible to get away with 2 paragraphs?
For the Judiciary that I have wrote about:
The independence of the judiciary, in that they must be independent and free from corruption and the criticism from other branches to effectively interpret law and protect individual’s rights, and how the US judiciary has more measures in place to protect this independence ie. judges being appointed for life, can't diminish their pay etc.
Separation of powers which you've already covered
Judicial impartiality
Constitutional impacts on the judiciary's power in protecting rights so, UK parliamentary sovereignty, US constitutional sovereignty and the powers of the US supreme court in terms of judicial review and being able to invalidate legislation which it deems as "unconstitutional", which helps protects the citizens rights guaranteed in the US Constitution.
I am not sure if this helps at all but it is just what I have revised for the Judiciary.
Does anyone have any revision or essay plans for government scrutiny??? or which past papers covered that topic I cant find any and have done no revision on that topic.
(edited 7 years ago)

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