Political Parties in the UK | AQA A-Level Politics (7152)

Political Parties in the UK

  • 96 questions
  • 7 subtopics
  • Paper 1: government and politics of the UK
  • Paper 1

What parties are for, the ideas and internal structures of the three main parties, where their money comes from and the controversies that follow, and the rise of the minor parties..

It covers party Functions and the Conservative Party, labour: Origins, Clause IV and Structure, the Liberal Democrats, party Funding and Short Money, funding Controversies, the Media and Electoral Outcomes, two-Party, Multi-Party and Dominant-Party Systems and minor Parties in UK Politics.

Sample questions from Political Parties in the UK

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

  1. Party Functions and the Conservative Party

    What is one-nation conservatism?

    Show the answer
    It is the paternalist tradition associated with Disraeli, holding that the privileged have a duty to improve the condition of the poor in order to keep society united.
  2. Party Functions and the Conservative Party

    How did the 2016 referendum reshape Conservative policy?

    Show the answer
    It made delivering withdrawal from the EU the party's central purpose, entrenched the Eurosceptic wing and shifted the party towards greater state intervention in favour of leave-voting areas.
  3. Labour: Origins, Clause IV and Structure

    Which revisionist thinker argued that equality could be achieved through growth and redistribution rather than nationalisation?

    Show the answer
    Anthony Crosland, in The Future of Socialism in 1956.
  4. Labour: Origins, Clause IV and Structure

    Which body is formally Labour's supreme policy-making authority?

    Show the answer
    The annual party conference, though in practice policy is shaped by the leadership and the National Policy Forum.
  5. The Liberal Democrats

    Distinguish classical from modern liberalism within the Liberal Democrats.

    Show the answer
    Classical liberals stress free markets and a limited state, while modern or social liberals argue that state action on welfare, health and education is needed to make freedom real.
  6. The Liberal Democrats

    How did the Liberal Democrats recover at the 2024 general election?

    Show the answer
    By targeting a limited number of Conservative-held seats in southern England they won 72 seats, their best result since the party was founded.
  7. Party Funding and Short Money

    What is Cranborne Money?

    Show the answer
    It is the equivalent public funding provided to opposition parties in the House of Lords.
  8. Party Funding and Short Money

    What did the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 introduce?

    Show the answer
    It created the Electoral Commission, required donations above a threshold to be declared publicly, banned donations from those not on a UK electoral register, and capped national campaign spending.

The 7 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic What it covers Questions
Party Functions and the Conservative Party Recall questions on what parties and ideology are and the functions parties perform, and on the Conservative Party from the Tamworth Manifesto through one-nation and New Right thinking to its leadership rules and the 1922 Committee. 15
Labour: Origins, Clause IV and Structure Recall questions on Labour's origins and the original Clause IV, the 1945 government, social democracy and revisionism, New Labour and the Third Way, the party since 2015, and how Labour is organised and chooses its leader. 13
The Liberal Democrats Recall questions on how the Liberal Democrats were formed from the Liberals and the SDP, their classical and modern liberal strands, core policies, the effect of the 2010 to 2015 coalition, their 2024 recovery and their federal structure. 9
Party Funding and Short Money Recall questions on what party funding covers, the main sources of party income, and how Short and Cranborne Money are allocated. 9
Funding Controversies, the Media and Electoral Outcomes Recall questions on how parties are funded and the controversies around donors, loans and state funding, parties and the press and social media, and the factors that decide the outcome of a general election. 20
Two-Party, Multi-Party and Dominant-Party Systems Recall questions on what a party system is and on how two-party, multi-party and dominant-party systems differ. 8
Minor Parties in UK Politics Recall questions on the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Greens, UKIP, Reform UK and the Northern Ireland parties, how minor parties shape the agenda, the barriers they face and the effect of multi-party politics on government. 22
Political Parties in the UK is 96 of the 2,215 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

  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.

Nearby topics

All 33 topics Guide overview

AQA A-Level Politics Active Recall Guide

Every topic, not just this one. 2,215 questions with their answers.

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