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Help with politics 9-marker please!!

So the question we have been given is "Explain and analyse three ways in which cultural theory could be used to study the party make up of the US House of Representatives and the UK House of Commons."

I understand the question, sort of, and I understand the essence of what is cultural theory, but I am really lost on what to write. Do I basically do something like:

one way in which cultural theory can be used to study party makeup in the lower chambers of uk and us legislature is by looking at _____.

but I have no idea what to put in that blank space.

please help, this is our first comparison essay and i am so lost lol
What exam board are you on? I'm doing Edexcel and I've never heard of a cultural theory.. :s-smilie:
Reply 2
Original post by V℮rsions
What exam board are you on? I'm doing Edexcel and I've never heard of a cultural theory.. :s-smilie:

AQA. it's horrible and we were supposed to cover this part while in lockdown, so obviously i don't get it.
Original post by nultayy
AQA. it's horrible and we were supposed to cover this part while in lockdown, so obviously i don't get it.

AQA huh, well I took a look at your spec and the word cultural is mentioned once... as a bullet point... they're not exactly making it easy for you.

-- My best guess would be the divided government in the US compared to the UK which usually has a majority - this being due to a separation of powers in the US Legislative and Executive via bipartisanship (mention the differences in constitution for example, it's codified that US is separate while int he UK it's not) while the UK has a derived Executive from within the Government. This allows a more unified government / legislative who can pass bills easier...
-- Also the fact that the US is mostly 2 party dominated, and while that's usually the case in the UK with Con/Lab, we also have more growing diversity shown by the SNP, and Lib Dems, which allows a more diverse/ accurate representation.
-- The fact that representatives are based on (I think) population, while MP's are 1 per area, making MP's much less proportional to population. This is arguably better for the big states who have more people, but worse for small states - while in the UK, the opposite is true, more people means MP's spread attention more while small areas mean MP's can concentrate on a smaller range of people.

I can't expand much as Edexcel is more comparing the systems of the countries government more so than the governments themselves, but I hope you can get some form of idea from this...
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 4
ha

Original post by V℮rsions
AQA huh, well I took a look at your spec and the word cultural is mentioned once... as a bullet point... they're not exactly making it easy for you.

-- My best guess would be the divided government in the US compared to the UK which usually has a majority - this being due to a separation of powers in the US Legislative and Executive via bipartisanship (mention the differences in constitution for example, it's codified that US is separate while int he UK it's not) while the UK has a derived Executive from within the Government. This allows a more unified government / legislative who can pass bills easier...
-- Also the fact that the US is mostly 2 party dominated, and while that's usually the case in the UK with Con/Lab, we also have more growing diversity shown by the SNP, and Lib Dems, which allows a more diverse/ accurate representation.
-- The fact that representatives are based on (I think) population, while MP's are 1 per area, making MP's much less proportional to population. This is arguably better for the big states who have more people, but worse for small states - while in the UK, the opposite is true, more people means MP's spread attention more while small areas mean MP's can concentrate on a smaller range of people.

I can't expand much as Edexcel is more comparing the systems of the countries government more so than the governments themselves, but I hope you can get some form of idea from this...


thank you, this really helps! you're right, they mention it once as a bullet point and then literally never again, just say "use it" as if we know what that means

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