Government and Politics

Course summary

This subject aims to give pupils an understanding of a range of important political principles. This is achieved by studying the political systems of the United Kingdom and the United States. In order to develop a full understanding of the way in which the two systems operate their development is explained and put into context. This could entail, for example, consideration of why the United Kingdom has an uncodified constitution and why the USA has a codified constitution. These principles would then be assessed in terms of contemporary developments such as the impact of ‘Brexit’ or the continuation of gun ownership in the United States, which are both constitutional issues. This has obvious benefits in terms of extending a pupil’s understanding of the modern world, but pupils will also acquire the ability to think for themselves, to ask and answers questions about the world they live in and to participate in sophisticated debate and analysis about the political systems that they live under. Politics simply cannot be boring when it has such an impact on so many aspects of people’s lives. Some knowledge of current affairs is helpful. If you do not know the name of the Leader of the Opposition in parliament then the subject may not be for you. At the same time it is important to realise that knowledge of current affairs is only a helpful starting point. You do not need to be an expert on political affairs, but you should be interested in them. If you like the idea of reading a quality newspaper or following the news in the media this might be a subject that you would find interesting.