Look inside the AQA A-Level Politics guide (7152)

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Look inside the AQA A-Level Politics guide

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AQA · A-Level · 7152
Politics
Active Recall Guide
2,215 questions
PoliticsContents
Contents
33 topics, 169 subtopics
  1. The Nature and Sources of the British Constitution82
  2. The Structure and Role of Parliament87
  3. The Prime Minister and Cabinet50
  4. The UK Judiciary52
  5. Devolution52
  6. Democracy and Participation98
  7. Elections and Referendums121
  8. Political Parties in the UK96
  9. Pressure Groups in the UK66
  10. The UK and the European Union29
  11. The Constitutional Framework of US Government73
  12. Congress56
  13. and 21 more
ii
The Structure and Role of ParliamentQuestions
The Structure and Role of Parliament
The Two Chambers and Parliamentary Privilege
  1. Which two chambers make up the UK Parliament?
  2. How many MPs sit in the Commons, and how is each elected?
  3. Who chairs debates in the Commons, and what is required of them?
  4. Name the two categories of member who sit in the House of Lords.
  5. Which Act made it possible to appoint peers for their lifetime only?
  6. Who are the Lords Spiritual?
  7. What is a crossbencher?
  8. Why is the Lords described as a revising chamber?
  9. Define parliamentary privilege.
12
The Structure and Role of ParliamentAnswers
Answers
The Two Chambers and Parliamentary Privilege
  1. The House of Commons and the House of Lords.
  2. There are 650 MPs, each elected in a single-member constituency under first past the post.
  3. The Speaker, who must set aside party allegiance and act with complete impartiality.
  4. Life peers and the twenty-six Lords Spiritual. The ninety-two remaining hereditary peers were removed by the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026.
  5. The Life Peerages Act 1958.
  6. Senior archbishops and bishops of the Church of England who sit in the Lords by virtue of their office.
  7. A peer who takes no party whip and sits as an independent.
  8. Its main task is to scrutinise and improve bills sent up from the Commons rather than to initiate or block the government's programme.
  9. The legal protections enjoyed by Parliament, chiefly freedom of speech in its proceedings, which cannot be challenged in the courts.
13
The US Supreme CourtQuestions
The US Supreme Court
How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court
  1. Distinguish the Court's original from its appellate jurisdiction.
  2. How does a case reach the Supreme Court?
  3. What is the rule of four?
  4. Roughly what proportion of petitions does the Court accept?
  5. Distinguish a majority opinion, a concurring opinion and a dissenting opinion.
  6. Why can a dissenting opinion still matter?
  7. What is stare decisis?
  8. Why have confirmation hearings become so politically charged?
34
The US Supreme CourtAnswers
Answers
How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court
  1. Original jurisdiction covers the few categories of case that begin in the Supreme Court, such as disputes between states, while almost all its work is appellate, reviewing decisions of lower courts.
  2. A party petitions for a writ of certiorari, and the Court agrees to hear the case if at least four justices vote to accept it.
  3. It is the convention that four of the nine justices must agree before the Court will hear a case.
  4. It receives several thousand petitions each year and hears well under a hundred, so the great majority are refused.
  5. The majority opinion states the Court's binding decision and reasoning, a concurring opinion agrees with the outcome but for different reasons, and a dissenting opinion sets out why a minority disagreed.
  6. It can supply the reasoning that a future Court, or Congress, later adopts when the law changes.
  7. It is the principle that the Court should follow its own established precedents, which gives the law stability and predictability.
  8. Because a lifetime appointment can settle contested questions of rights and policy for a generation, so both parties treat each vacancy as a major political prize.
35
Civil Rights ComparedQuestions
Civil Rights Compared
How Rights Are Protected in Each Country
  1. On what does rights protection ultimately rest in each country?
  2. Name the principal rights instrument in each country.
  3. What can each country's highest court do when a law breaches rights?
  4. Why does parliamentary sovereignty weaken rights protection compared with the US model?
  5. A government wishes to restrict the right to protest. How does the position differ in each country?
  6. What is the main anti-discrimination legislation in each country?
  7. How was the right to vote extended in each country?
  8. What part have the courts played in advancing civil rights in each country?
  9. Use the ruling on segregated schooling to illustrate the difference in judicial impact.
56
Civil Rights ComparedAnswers
Answers
How Rights Are Protected in Each Country
  1. US rights are entrenched in a codified constitution and enforceable by the courts, while UK rights rest mainly on common law and on statutes that Parliament can amend or repeal.
  2. In the USA it is the Bill of Rights together with later amendments to the constitution, and in the UK it is the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights.
  3. The US Supreme Court can strike the law down as unconstitutional, while a UK court can only issue a declaration of incompatibility and leave the decision to Parliament.
  4. Any right created by statute can be narrowed or removed by a later Act, so no UK right is beyond the reach of a government with a majority.
  5. In the UK it can legislate and the courts must apply the Act, while in the USA the restriction would be tested against the First Amendment and could be struck down.
  6. The US Civil Rights Act 1964 and Voting Rights Act 1965 outlawed discrimination and protected access to the vote, while comparable UK protections grew through race and sex discrimination statutes now consolidated in the Equality Act 2010.
  7. US extensions came through constitutional amendments protecting the vote regardless of race and then for women, while UK suffrage was widened by a series of ordinary Reform and Representation of the People Acts.
  8. US campaigners have won landmark rulings that changed the law across the whole country, while UK campaigners have generally had to win a parliamentary majority because judges cannot overturn a statute.
  9. The decision in Brown vs Topeka Board of Education that segregated schooling was unconstitutional changed the law across the whole of the USA, an outcome no UK court decision could produce.
57
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2,215 questions
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  1. Step 1 · Closed book

    Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.

  2. Step 2 · Open book

    Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.

  3. Step 3 · Closed book again

    Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.

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