A humble citizen is better than a proud president.
Matshona Dhliwayo
This Zimbabwean-born philosopher seems to state the obvious. Of course, it's better to be humble than proud! A bit of thought reveals that a president must also be a citizen, and a citizen, by default, engages civically. Civic engagement is the heart of his phrase - not pride or humility.
The first step to engagement is learning the foundations of civil life. How does the government work? What roles do our elected officials play - and how much power do they have? This article helps you see how A-Level Politics informs you of this, and arms you with the tools to start your civic journey.
Easing Into A-Level Politics
- Introducing the subject
- Discovering study topics
- Assessing your scope of learning
- Deciding to choose Politics A-Level
Intro to A-level Politics
Actively or not, nearly everyone engages civically. We obey laws, pay taxes and follow the social compact. For some people, that good enough, and those acts define the extent of their participation.
Many go a step further by volunteering and voting in elections, a civic act reserved to citizens. For most, that's all there is to political engagement.
Many know who the Prime Minister is and have an idea of what they do. However, they have little knowledge about the inner workings of government. Nor do they discern political trends, or make connections between seemingly isolated events.
These are what Politics A-Level teaches. You'll study two government systems: The United Kingdom's (UK's), and the United States' (US') - or global government. Edexcel offers students the choice between US and global political studies; AQA does not. You'll also explore political ideologies, including conservatism, liberalism, and socialism.
This course does not require prior knowledge of politics and government. However, History, Sociology, and Advanced English are good background subjects for Politics A-Level.
The government and politics A-Levels starts with a review of the UK's foundational documents. You'll study Parliament structures, its legislative bodies, and their functions. Next, you'll explore the civic side of government and politics: elections, referendums, and pressure groups.
You'll discover other significant papers as you progress through the course, including the US Constitution. US government and politics is your second major field of study - unless Edexcel is your exam board. In that case, you'll have a choice of government systems to study. You'll learn the differences - and similarities, between two countries' political machines.
Your government and politics A-Level includes a third field of study: ideologies. Political ideologies range from the general - conservative, liberal, and social, to targeted initiatives. Those include feminism, anarchism, multiculturalism, and ecologism.
That wraps up this overview of the A-Level Politics specification. Next, we examine these topics in-depth, to give you food for thought.
Politics A Level Topics of Study
In the last segment, you read an overview of this A-Level subject. Obviously, you know it has something to do with government and politics. That's a broad spectrum, and those two qualifiers don't tell you much about what you'll learn. Here, we go over course particulars.
As you might already know, two exam boards offer Politics A-Level courses: AQA and Edexcel. Their objectives remain the same, because the Department for Education sets them. Their differences lie in how they present the study topics. This charts the courses' main topics.
| 🤓Topic | 🅰Edexcel & AQA | 🅱Edexcel |
|---|---|---|
| UK politics studies | Political participation: democracy, elections, political parties, voting behaviour, core political ideologies. | |
| UK government studies | Historical documents, government positions and their roles, the Constitution, Parliament, branches of government. | |
| US politics and government | US Constitution and branches of government, civil rights and responsibilities, pressure groups | Globalisation and sovereignty; global governance: political and economic, human rights and environmental, power and developments, the European Union and regionalism, comparative theories |
| Political ideologies | conservatism, liberalism, socialism feminism, anarchism, multiculturalism, ecologism, nationalism |
😊What Will you Learn?
Progressing through this course will expose you to contemporary political structures and their historical backgrounds. You'll develop your understanding of current and past issues, in the UK and around the world.
You'll explore interests and influences that impact government and political work. For instance, pressure groups (lobbyists) represent a single interest - a particular industry or rights advocates. You'll touch on geopolitics - how geographical and political factors impact decision-making.
You'll discover the value and importance of being civically engaged. It's our responsibility to be informed citizens, and put what we know to work for the betterment of society. To do that, we must interpret, analyse, and evaluate political information. This course makes doing that possible.
Politics is an ever-changing beast. Understanding political ideas and how they relate forms the foundation of future political engagement. Likewise, studying government institutions and their processes is vital to finding your place - as a citizen, and/or one who might rebuild these systems.
Your A-Level Politics exams and courses cover all this and more. Even if you're not interested in a career in politics, what this course takes you far beyond political fields.
What you really learn is how to think critically, process information, and form coherent theses. Once you learn how to do all that, you'll be unstoppable.
Why Choose A-Level Politics
The phrase 'What's in it for me?' - WIIFM, grew in popularity in 1970s US. That was the beginning of the self-help wave, and the dawn of motivational speaking as a career. The concept is much older, though.
Adam Smith, the 18th Century philosopher, insisted that people always act in their rational self-interest. Distasteful and egocentric as it sounds, the idea is on-point, but it's a bit vague.
Every situation presents up- and downsides; deciding whether benefits outweigh the costs is up to the individual. This writer struggles to find any downsides of studying politics and government, but upsides abound. These are the best arguments for studying government and politics A-Level.
I write this with full awareness of being older and having more life experience, which affords me a different perspective on civic matters.
⌚Relevance
It is impossible to be apolitical - or even politically neutral, without knowledge of politics. By the same token, one cannot embrace a political stance without knowing about politics. Like economics/finance, politics permeates every aspect of society. It is arguably one of the most impactful and relevant features of modern life.
Without political attitudes, content, biases; the state of being politically neutral. (Collins dictionary)
🤔Understand Current Events
We live in a time of unprecedented turmoil. It's not like the world has never had pandemics, wars, inequality, famine, and life-threatening climatic events. However, our technological advances have made each of these more lethal. Lumped together - as they are now, they pose an existential threat.
Understanding what's going on in the world today is the best way to ensure future hope. We citizens mustn't allow malevolent actors to dictate future conditions. Once we know what we're up against, we'll be better positioned to resist it.
🙋🏻♂️Preparation for Civic Engagement
Considering the ongoing global turmoil, humanity needs young, sharp thinkers to take the reins. To do so, they must build the knowledge and skills necessary to outmanoeuvre the current cataclysms. This self-confessed older generation person avers that transfer of power cannot happen soon enough.
🤹🏻♀️Develop Transferable Skills
As a near-adult about to enter the job market, you may have already cycled through job postings. If so, you might have noticed 'teamwork', 'leadership skills', and 'problem-solving' in the position descriptions. Those, along with critical thinking, oral and written communication, and organisational skills, are called transferable skills.
These are professional skills that transfer across career fields. Developing transferable skills ensures your marketability which, in turn, assures your working future. Unlike specialised learning paths - say, Biology, Politics A-Level fosters transferable skills.
🎩Career Opportunities
As though the upsides listed so far weren't enough, we top it off with a bright professional outlook. Studying government and politics A-Level prepares you for work in the civil sector, or as a government employee.
You may run for public office someday, or decide on a law degree at university. Management opportunities, entrepreneurship, and community organising - these are all in your future, with this A-Level.
✅This course might be for you if....
- you want to understand how the world works
- you want to take part in helping shape the global future
- you're pursuing a career in law or politics
- you wish to be a responsible and responsive global citizen
❌This course might not be for you if...
- you have no interest in public service
- you do not aspire to management positions
- you're pursuing a career in science or the arts
- the emotional investment is too great
Is Politics A-Level Hard?
This question is subjective: what might be hard for one could be a snap for the next person. Besides, what does 'hard' mean?
Yes, this course is study-intensive, and some of the topics are complex. Still, a well-prepared student will have no more difficulty scoring well in this subject than any other.
Reviewing Politics A-Level past papers, marking schemes, and examiner reports gives us a lot to go on. We found the exam papers minimal - five questions each. The marking schemes present a clear breakdown of expectations. The examiners' reports instruct students how they could improve on past test takers' performances.
Is Politics A-Level hard - or challenging? Only you can decide that, but that's not the question that matters. Is Politics A-Level worth it? In general - especially depending on your life goals, we say 'Yes'. Now, more than ever.
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