Government and Politics

Course summary

The world is a complex place with problems that cross borders. Here in the UK we continue to deal with the aftermath of both Brexit and the pandemic. Finding its new place in the world, outside the EU, continues to be a significant challenge for the UK. There are challenges regarding national identity, the economy, and security, all of which were made even more difficult by coronavirus and our response to it. The course goes on to look at more global aspects of politics such as poverty, human rights, and relations between the major powers. We also consider how political ideas offer differing solutions to the issues we face. Girls at St Catherine's do extremely well in their Politics examinations and achieve excellent results. In the first year we look at UK politics and how it is constantly changing: • We have left the EU, but what does this mean and what might it lead to? • How is Brexit affecting the future of Britain? • How united is the United Kingdom? Is Britain really democratic? We examine the UK political system to try to understand the extent of the change that could happen and analyse the longer-term effects of the events since 2016. The second year is split into two sections so feels very much like a university modular course. The first section focuses on political thought that gets to the essence of what politics is about- what sort of society do we want to live in? We look at four ideologies in our search for answers. The second section addresses great global political issues of our time: • What are the global implications of Russia's war against Ukraine? Is China overtaking the US as the world's greatest power? • What can international bodies like the UN do to deal with challenges such as climate change, global justice and human rights, and the Ukraine crisis? Is the rise of nationalism threatening the internationalism of the last 50 years? Both sections contain ideas and concepts which will challenge the way that you think about the world in which you live.