Ms N Mitchell - Subject Leader

Mr R Crouch

“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”    Plato

A-level Politics is a fascinating and engaging study of the way we rule ourselves, the interaction between change and continuity’ and how power is shaped and used.

In Year 12, the focus is on UK politics and society, investigating the current political scene and possible changes to improve society and politics.  Component  1 covers four areas -  Democracy and Participation, Political Parties, Electoral Systems, and Voting Behaviour and the Media. Component 2 covers a further four areas – the Constitution, Parliament, Prime Minister and Executive, and Relationships between the branches.

In Year 13, students study the core political ideologies, Liberalism, Conservatism and Socialism, plus two others from the Optional Ideologies, Feminism and Nationalism. 

A final component is Comparative Politics where we study the Government and Politics of the USA and compare to the UK.

The final overall grade is based on three 2 hours written papers sat at the end of Year 13, each contributing a third of the marks.