Hodder Education, an Hachette UK company, Blenheim Court, George Street, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX16 5BH

Orders

Bookpoint Ltd, 130 Park Drive, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4SB

tel: 01235 827720

fax: 01235 400401

e-mail: education@bookpoint.co.uk

Lines are open 9.00 a.m.–5.00 p.m., Monday to Saturday, with a 24-hour message answering service. You can also order through the Hodder Education website: www.hoddereducation.co.uk

© Paul Fairclough and Nick Gallop 2017

ISBN 978-1-4718-9296-7
eISBN 978-1-4718-9294-3

First printed 2017

Impression number 5 4 3 2 1

Year 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any other form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of Hodder Education or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Barnard’s Inn, 86 Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1EN.

This Guide has been written specifically to support students preparing for the AQA AS and A-level Politics examinations. The content has been neither approved nor endorsed by AQA and remains the sole responsibility of the author.

Cover photograph: sibgat/123 RF

Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd., Pondicherry, India

Printed in Italy

Hachette UK’s policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

Contents

Getting the most from this book

About this book

Content Guidance

The nature and sources of the British Constitution

The structure and role of Parliament

The prime minister and cabinet

The judiciary

Devolution

Questions & Answers

6-mark questions (AS only)

The nature and sources of the British Constitution

The structure and role of Parliament

9-mark questions (A-level only)

The prime minister and cabinet

The judiciary

12-mark extract-based questions (AS only)

Devolution

The prime minister and cabinet

25-mark extract-based essay questions (A-level only)

The nature and sources of the British Constitution

The structure and role of Parliament

25-mark essay questions (AS and A-level)

The prime minister and cabinet

The judiciary

Knowledge check answers

Glossary

Index

Getting the most from this book

Exam tips

Advice on key points in the text to help you learn and recall content, avoid pitfalls, and polish your exam technique in order to boost your grade.

Knowledge check

Rapid-fire questions throughout the Content Guidance section to check your understanding.

Knowledge check answers

Turn to the back of the book for the Knowledge check answers.

Summaries

•  Each core topic is rounded off by a bullet-list summary for quick-check reference of what you need to know.

About this book

The aim of this Student Guide is to prepare students for the Government of the UK section of AQA AS Paper 1 Government and Politics of the UK and AQA A-level Paper 1 Government and Politics of the UK.

For AS Politics students, the topics covered in this guide comprise half of the topics required for the examination on Government and Politics of the UK — they appear in the specification under the heading Government of the UK. For A-level Politics students, the topics covered in the guide form half of Paper 1 Government and Politics of the UK. A-level Politics Paper 1 represents a third of the papers required to complete the A-level examination. In both cases, all of the topics could be examined in the exam. It is therefore vital that you are familiar with and confident about all the material.

The Content Guidance section covers all the topics largely in the order in which they appear on the AQA AS and A-level specifications. You are strongly advised to have a copy of the specification to refer to as you go through the topics. For the section on the Government of the UK there are five main topics: The nature and sources of the British Constitution; The structure and role of Parliament; The prime minister and cabinet; The judiciary; and Devolution.

You should use the Content Guidance to ensure you are familiar with all the key concepts and terms, statistics, issues and arguments, and to give you a range of relevant examples that you can quote in your answers because you are aware of the relative significance of these principles and concepts. Throughout this section of the guide you will find definitions or explanations of important terms and concepts. There is also a series of knowledge checks which can act as a guide to some important examples you can use when answering questions and which will help to establish detailed knowledge. The answers to these knowledge checks can be found at the end of the guide. Exam tips are designed to help you avoid significant common errors made by students as well as guiding you towards good practice.

The Questions & Answers section is an opportunity to hone exam technique and to become familiar with the skills and structures that examiners are looking for in the AS and A-level exams. The answers illustrate both good and weak technique. It is not possible to provide sample questions and answers for each section of the exam on every topic, so you need to be aware that any parts of the specification could be tested in any sections of the examination.

This guide does not provide a full range of examples or go into full detail, so you should use it alongside other resources such as class notes and articles in Politics Review (published by Hodder Education). You should also use websites such as the BBC, TotalPolitics.com, The Times Red Box and www.politics.co.uk to keep up to date with current news.