A Level Politics

 “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors” – Plato (Philosopher)
 

If you have an interest in current affairs and enjoy debate and discussion, this subject is for you. Everyone is affected by politics and the actions of politicians, therefore studying and talking about politics are a necessary part of the life that we lead.  

You must enjoy reading about current affairs from reputable sources and watching programmes such as Question Time and the Daily Politics show, and you must be interested in how and why decisions are made by politicians in a democratic system.

Course Content: 

Component 1: UK Politics 

Political Participation, students will study: democracy and participation, political parties, electoral systems, voting behaviour and the media.

Core Political Ideas, students will study: conservatism, liberalism, socialism.

Component 2: UK Government 

UK Government, students will study: the constitution, parliament, Prime Minister and executive, relationships between the branches.

Non-core political ideas, students will study: one idea from the following: anarchism, ecologism, feminism, multiculturalism, nationalism.

Component 3: Comparative Politics 

The US Constitution and federalism, US Congress, US presidency, US Supreme Court and civil rights, democracy and participation, comparative theories. There will be comparisons between the US and the UK systems as part of the examination.

No previous knowledge of UK or US politics is required. But you do need to be interested! You will need to watch the news, read the papers, and follow different politicians on social media including Twitter and keep up with current affairs. There could be no better time to be studying politics.

“America will never be destroyed from outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed it ourselves”
Abraham Lincoln (16th President of the United States)  

Career Opportunities  

Many of our students go on to study politics or international relations at university. Others go on to courses in American Studies or to combine politics with other subjects like philosophy and economics. The study of politics will give you a detailed understanding of how political systems work, and how decisions about governing in a modern democracy are made. This is therefore a very good choice of subject for careers in a wide variety of fields such as the civil service, education, journalism, the law and the voluntary sector as well as in business and commerce.

“We did not come to fear the future. We came to shape it”.                                              Barak Obama (Former President)