US Government and Politics: Revision Exchange Thread

Revision for the exams on the 9th and 13th of June.

Unit 3:

- Elections & Voting
- Political Parties
- Pressure Groups
- Racial and Ethnic Politics

Unit 4:

- Constitution
- Presidency
- Congress
- Supreme Court and Rights & Liberties

Have a question? Ask it here and there will be people who can help.

Got any essay plans or model answers? Post them here, even if they're bad (Receive feedback).

Past papers, mark schemes and examiner reports -> http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/gov/Pages/default.aspx

Good websites:

- http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ - A collection of most recent articles from main newspapers and media companies
- www.politico.com/ - In depth articles. This website specialises in politics.
- http://thehill.com/ - So far this is the most relevant news website for the course. Very good articles.

The usual:
- http://www.nytimes.com/
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/

(edited 9 years ago)

All 15 mark questions from 2010 (Unit 4).docx3.8KB

All 45 markers Unit 4C.docx15.2KB

The makeup of congress - Official.pdf298.2KB

The US Constitution Summary.docx15.9KB

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Reply 1

TSR Learn Together

Official Rep

Hi there,

While you're waiting for an answer, did you know we have 300,000 study resources that could answer your question in TSR's Learn together section?

We have everything from Teacher Marked Essays to Mindmaps and Quizzes to help you with your work. Take a look around.

If you're stuck on how to get started, try creating some resources. It's free to do and can help breakdown tough topics into manageable chunks. Get creating now.

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Bump

You can post your notes and get it started :biggrin:

Reply 4

Xeasi

Yeah, I'm up for this although I haven't actually started revising yet.

Reply 5

I like school

Does it have to be Edexcel because I have some AQA revision notes that I am very willing to exchange / share with the group! :smile:

edit: They are on American politics and I imagine there is quite an overlap anyway!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

Xeasi

Yeah, I mean I don't think it'll be that different from Edexcel.

Reply 7

username877577

Not US related but from a UK perspective could anybody help me in tackling this question:

Is the judiciary too powerful, or is it not powerful enough? (40)

Reply 8

username1078254

Original post by Olympiad

Not US related but from a UK perspective could anybody help me in tackling this question:

Is the judiciary too powerful, or is it not powerful enough? (40)

Original post by I like school

Does it have to be Edexcel because I have some AQA revision notes that I am very willing to exchange / share with the group! :smile:

edit: They are on American politics and I imagine there is quite an overlap anyway!

Please share away! I would be happy to try and help you also if you have any questions. Do you have anything on the president abusing his power or seeming imperial?

Original post by Xeasi

Yeah, I'm up for this although I haven't actually started revising yet.

Ahh good good, what do you need help with specifically?

Original post by cosmopoto

You can post your notes and get it started :biggrin:

Well I can't post every note as I don't know what people want :biggrin:

What do you need help with?

By the way, sorry for neglecting this thread. I thought people weren't interested so I didn't check it often.

Reply 9

username1078254

Original post by Olympiad

Not US related but from a UK perspective could anybody help me in tackling this question:

Is the judiciary too powerful, or is it not powerful enough? (40)

Sorry.

Well if you compare the UK Supreme Court to the US supreme court you will notice that the US one is far more powerful. This may not help in an essay but let me continue.

The UK supreme court cannot overrule parliament as Parliament is sovereign. In your book you may have seen the example about the freezing of bank accounts of suspected terrorists. I don't remember the example specifically so I don't want to give you wrong information, but I'd strongly suggest you read about it as it was one of the main examples of the Supreme court NOT being powerful.

However there are two things I can think of which Suggest that it is strong.

It was strengthened by the Human Rights act as UK judges could implement law that is practically binding to the UK as a member of the EU.

Secondly it was in fact the threat of a Judicial review that provoked a review of the Bedroom Tax after many people complained about it. This shows that Parliament (I can't remember which minister it was) clearly does feel threatened by actions by the Supreme court. That is simply because, although they can, they wouldn't want to overrule the Supreme court due to media scrutiny and, thus, bad press.

I know this isn't much help but I haven't studied Unit 2 for almost a year.

Reply 10

username1078254

By the way guys the Senate Democrats have recently released their 2014 mid-term agenda called "A Fair Shot for Everyone". This can basically be used where you would previously use examples like Contract with America (1994) or Six for 06 (2006).

Hope this helped

Reply 11

Xeasi

Original post by eagleclawsan

Ahh good good, what do you need help with specifically?

I'm just consolidating knowledge at the moment, but I think maybe it'll be worthwhile if everyone can upload any files (don't worry about scanning stuff, just stuff already on computers) and we could create a new thread with resources in the thread starter post?

Just an idea, to keep it organised

Reply 12

username877577

Original post by eagleclawsan

Much appreciated, thanks!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 13

Fillosoffa

Original post by TSR Learn Together

The right resources are a lot easier to find on GetRevising than on here, however we can't use our account to log in on that site. So it's ok saying how many resources we have access to, but it's difficult to actually find them on here.

Reply 14

victorazubuike

Have your teachers given any predictions for what they believe might come up? - My teacher in regards to the 3C paper is adamant that there will be a question on race in the form of a 45 marker. While my 4C teacher also believes there will be a Supreme Court 45marker. Any other predictions?

Reply 15

JProcter

A 45 marker on race is highlighly likely saying there were 2 15 markers on it in the last summers exam,
My teacher is obsessed with Presidency so I can see that coming up,
Has everyone seen the big supreme court case in Michigan where they supreme court has upheld an amendment to their state constitution banning Affirmative action with a 6-2 decision. That will be a killer example for Race..
We still have to cover most of race and have just started parties today.
If anyone has any questions about any of the topics, i'll try to help. The textbook is also quite helpful although it is expensive. Are other people using the Anthony J Bennet Textbook?

Reply 16

JProcter

An example of Bi-partisanship was the budget deal which stopped the Government Shutdown...
Also are other teachers stressing the words, 'Hyperpartisanship' and 'polarisation'?

Reply 17

username1078254

Original post by JProcter

I'm using the 2012 version of that book. I got it from my school library. I find it very extensive (Not in a good way) so I find the Phillip Allan unitit guides more helpful. Thank you for the example. For affirmative action I would strongly advise that you research the theory of mismatch if you haven't already. In summary it means that ethnic minorities are actually worse of as a result of affirmative action due to being accepted into selective colleges for which they're not fully suited. As a result they often full into the bottom 10th of the class and end up either dropping out or receiving a bad final grade and thus employment prospects are badly affected. I believe it was UCLA who estimated that many African Americans would have been better off going to less demanding colleges as they would now be in better jobs.

I will also link you to this... http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/Product-Landing-Pages/Magazines/Magazines-extras/Politics-Review-extras

If you go to February 2014 you will see a file called 'Five things you need to know about race'. It's quite useful.

But please can I have some help? Whilst I am quite confident on the other 3 topics in Unit 3C I struggle with race and ethnic politics as I find it so boring. So besides affirmative action (Which I am quite good at) can you break down what I should revise please?

Thanks

Original post by JProcter

An example of Bi-partisanship was the budget deal which stopped the Government Shutdown...
Also are other teachers stressing the words, 'Hyperpartisanship' and 'polarisation'?

You are correct that is a really good example and recent. I don't think you need to worry about using 'hyperpartisanship' in the exam but 'polarisation' is definitively relevant. There are currently no centrists in either chamber of Congress, which basically means every Democrat is more Liberal than the most Liberal Republican and every Republican is more Conservative than the most Conservative Democrat, thus there are non in between and there is no overlap. This is a result an increase in polarisation.

Reply 18

username1078254

Original post by victorazubuike

Great my two worst topics :frown:

. I have my own predictions. I believe a question on partisanship may come up due to the last two congresses being the most partisan to date. My teacher has been teaching a lot about the federal bureaucracy though. But maybe just because that is a big section.

By the way do any of you guys read the examiner reports? Can people really write that much within 15 minutes or do you think they actually lost time?

Reply 19

JProcter

We've literally had 10 lessons on Race and so we havent really covered a lot, We recently got a 45 marker, set over Easter, theres a good article from politics review which looks at all of Obamas 2008 Views on Immigration Reform and so what has happened with them. Immigration reform seems to be fairly big in Race and Ethnic, I find it interesting due to the opposing republican views coming forward now, With people Touting Jeb Bush for 2016 all over the American press his views on immigration reform are to support most of the Rubio plan which is to work towards a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants,
The Supreme Court views on Affirmative Action are really interesting as well, with one person liking it and saying shes on the court because of it,
And Clarence Thomas saying it demeans ethnic minority people by saying they need extra help. Class based Affirmative Action is the future in America.