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Constitution

• Drawn from:
  • Statute, common and case law
  • European Union
  • The Crown

• Types of constitution
  • Codified: Constitution in one set place, in a defined, and hard-to change document (USA).
  • Uncodified: Drawn from numerous constantly updated sources, and is a collective, rather than single source (UK).
  • Federal: Power travels up through regional bodies to the centralised state (USA)
  • Unitary: Centralised government makes legislation, and passes it down through local authorities (UK).

• Constitutional government – abides by rules (UK and USA).

• Arbitrary government – unchecked by rules – effective dictatorship (DPRK of North Korea)

Keep Present System	Codification
Pro-uncodified: Flexible Modern Never been a problem in past Public have no problem with it Anti-codified: Hard to agree on Inflexible (hard to change) Too much power to judges (new interpretations)	Pro-codified: Defines people’s liberties Safeguard against tyrannical government Public can access and understand easier. Anti-uncodified: Dangerous govt can exploit it Hard for public to understand Allows civil liberties to be overridden.

Potential Questions and key areas to mention

What is a constitution? (5)

• A set of rules, which a government must abide by.
• Essentially defines the powers and functions of government institutions.
• States the relationship of the state to civil liberties and the individual.

Distinguish between a codified and uncodified constitution. (15)

• Codified – in one place, can be collection of different types of rules. Entrenched, and extremely difficult to amend and change, in comparison to an uncodified modification.
• (eg. USA comprises of the Bill of Rights, Patriot Act)
• Uncodified - an ever-growing assortment of different documents, which are not collected into one place. Not entrenched into the political system, therefore is more flexible (eg. UK – drawn from Magna Carta, HRA)

Analyse the advantages of an uncodified constitution (30)

• Pro uncodified:
  • It is flexible, and can be constantly added to (example recent devolution constitution changes was made much easier as it is uncodified constitution).
  • Has been effective for a number of years, and never had a tyrannical
  • Government appeared in the modern era (despite tabloid opinion, Thatcher and Blair were tyrannical leaders!).
  • The public are content without knowing the intricacies of the constitution (only liberals and Charter88 show much interest in constitutional reform).

• Anti-codified:
  • It could never be agreed on. A codified constitution often appears after a revolution or significant political change, and a peacetime codification would just take too long to debate out, without a common goal (e.g. USA was declaring independence and a start to self-government).
  • Judges would have to set a whole set of new interpretations, and would give them too much power, and would be time consuming.
  • Too inflexible – would freeze contemporary ideas into the constitution.

(Model answers above are extracted from an Edexcel Mark Scheme.)

Comments

These notes are aimed at people studying for Edexcel A Level Politics, module 2.

Originally submitted by mattey on TSR Forums.