Politics Notes AS Elliott Highmore
Politics: the study of how a society is or should be run and how power is conducted or carried out,
power is the ability to get people to get others to act as you wish, either willingly or through
coercion and force.
Political ideas - what should an ideal society look like etc.
Political institutions - what is parliament and how does it work etc.
Political processes and roles - how is power exercised in practice, for example what powers does
the PM have and what limits exist to their power etc.
What is politics?
Politics exists because people disagree:
• moral questions (living)
• resource questions
• power questions (decision makers)
Process of different ideas, values, opinions, interests, and how to find a way to live together in the
same society, it seeks to establish general beneficial rules, to help maintain an orderly existance,
politics is the most basic and necessary of social activities, otherwise a civil war may be ensued.
Aristotle said that politics was the ‘master science’.
AS:
Unit 1 People and Politics
• democracy and political participation
• party policies and ideas
• pressure groups
-looks at how people are linked to the government through the themes of democracy and political
participation, party policies and ideas, as well as pressure groups
Unit 2 Governing the UK
• the constitution
• parliament
• the prime minister and cabinet
-focuses on main institutions of the UK government, such as the PM and Cabinet, themes of
distribution of policymaking and the effectiveness of the key bodies carrying out their roles and
functions
A2:
Unit 3 Key Themes in Political Analysis
A. UK Political Issues: economic policy, social welfare, health and education, law order and
criminal justice
B. Introducing Political Ideologies: liberalism, conservatism, socialism, anarchism
C. Representative Processes in the USA: elections and voting, political parties, pressure
groups, racial and ethnic politics
D. Structures of Global Politics: approaches to global politics, world order, global governance,
european union and regionalism
-gives an understanding of politics on a global scale, including the importance of power, and how
political structures and organisations have developed to promote co-operation and prevent
disputes
Unit 4 Extended Themes in Political Analysis
A. EU Political Issues: impact of EU on the UK, integration, institutions and relationships,
policies
B. Other Idealogical Traditions: nationalism, feminism, ecologism, multiculturalism
C. Governing the USA: the constitution, congress, presidency, supreme court
D. Global Political Issues: conflict, war, terrorism, poverty and development, environmental
issues, human rights
-in this topic you will examine key issues in recent global politics such as conflict, poverty, human
rights and the environment and how these issues are dealt with at a global level.
,Politics Notes AS Elliott Highmore
Chapter 1: Introducing Politics and Government
Beginning the Study of Politics: debate and disagreement lie at the heart of politics, it’s not a study
of absolute rights or wrongs, but it is a collection of opinions, if all opinions were equal, then they
would be equally worthless, politics is about thinking for yourself.
Are politicians to be trusted?: in December 2010, the Lib Dem leadership instructed its MP’s to
vote in favour of an increase in uni tuition fees, which were to rise from £3000 a year to £9000,
which contradicted their earlier statement of not only saying they weren't going to rise them, but
were to abolish them altogether, (similar to the NHS fake statistics during the EU Referendum),
they hoped this would be in the best interests of the nation, some went on to say the Lib Dem’s
were now not a ‘party of protest’ but a ‘serious’ party. Politicians are self serving creatures, should
we be surprised if they break their promises?, this is just human nature, some say the job is just
about winning and wielding power, they are corrupt and less honourable or trustworthy than the
average citizen.
What issues do these developments raise?: were Lib Dem leaders guilty of breaking their
promises? should politicians always keep their promises to the electorate? do we judge politicians
as we find them…? if power leads to corruption, why do we have a government?
Understanding politics:
What is politics?: ‘politics is the activity though which people make, uphold and revise the general
rules under which they live’
What are ‘general rules’?: rules that affect how we interact with other members of society, they are
rules that affect how we behave within the community, rather than in our personal lives, this
highlights a distinction between ‘public’ and ‘personal’ life, public being the realm of politics, dealing
with issues that affect the whole community, but personal being by contrast, to act as we wish,
about who to marry, what to buy, religious belief, and so forth. There is no agreement about the
proper balance of public and personal/private life.
Why are they needed?: needed because of the problem of the balance of conflict, if we lived in a
world of universal harmony and agreement, we would not need rules to guide our behaviour, but
that will probably never ‘naturally’ exist. People disagree on the distribution of wealth, politics is
also a way of finding resolutions to conflict, and allowing people with different ideas to live in the
same society together.
How are the rules made?: rules made differently according to system of government, operating on
the basis of power, ‘traditional authority’ is based on the history or belief that something has
‘always happened’.
Power and Authority: the ability to achieve a desired outcome, sometimes seen as the power to do
anything, from the ability to stay alive, or to achieve economic growth. Power is more commonly
understood as a relationship, usually through rewards or punishments, implications of having
‘power over others’. Authority can most simply be defined as ‘legitimate power’, whereas power
involves the ability to influence the behaviour of others, authority is therefore based on an
acknowledged duty to obey, rather than the use of punishments and rewards, nevertheless power
and authority are often used in tandem and examples of authority being used in the absence of
power are rare.
• charismatic authority - based on personality
• legal-rational authority - based on formal and impersonal roles
What is government?: a set of constitutions through which the general rules of society (laws) are
made and enforced, consisting of 3 parts that aid our country and social institutions-
• making laws - legislation
• carrying out laws - execution
• interpreting laws - adjudication
How powerful is government?: the issue of power in gov. can affect ordinary citizens, it highlights
the difference between normal and authoritarian government, in the the case of limited gov., a
framework of checks or constraints. These are to protect individual freedom, by preventing over
mighty government, government can be limited through constitutions, and by fragmenting it,
through the creation of smaller institutions that check one another, in effect, authoritarian
governments can do as they wish regardless of checks etc, seen as tyrannical…
,Politics Notes AS Elliott Highmore
Types of power:
1. power as decision making - ability to affect the content of public policy
2. power as agenda setting - influence the issues and proposals that are discussed
3. power as thought control - ability to shape popular beliefs, values and ideas
-hard power: ability to exert influence through the use of threats or rewards
-soft power: ability to exert influence through attraction rather than coercion
Who controls the government: this highlights the difference between democracies and autocracies,
in the case of democratic government, power lies with the people. Government is meant to be
carried out by the people, this means government is based on the principle of elections, those who
hold democratic power are chosen through elections, to ensure the gov. acts for the people.
-autocracy: literally, self rule by a single person who exercises power in arbitrary manner
-authoritarianism: the practice of rule ‘from above’ government imposed without consent.
Liberal Democracy: indirect and representative form of democracy, the right to rule is gained
through success in regular and competitive elections, with a democratic commitment to elections
and popular participations.
• free, fair and regular elections that represent the principle of universal suffrage
• competition for power between a number of candidates and a number of parties
• guaranteed civil liberties and rights
• constitutional government based on formal/legal rules
• a civil society, free media, with independence
• a capitalist or private-enterprise economy
UK Politics in Context
Historical context:
• crown and parliament
• the rise of industrialisation
• politics since 1945
Crown and Parliament: the UK has had a stable and peaceful political history, wars and revolutions
rarely visited British shores, unlike much of continental Europe. However, the English Revolution of
the 17th century is often viewed as the first modern political revolution, helped influence later
American and French revolutions, because of the power and struggle between the monarchy and
Parliament, this period of political upheaval and a civil strife led to the 1689 Glorious Revolution,
and provided the basis for Britain’s later constitutional development, giving rise to new communist
and anarchist political thinking, Britain was the establishment of representative government.
The Rise of Industrialisation: the UK was the worlds first industrial state, the IR of the mid-18th
century had made the UK a ‘workshop of the world’, producing two thirds of the worlds coal, half its
steel, half its cotton goods, and virtually all its machine goods.
-internally: transformed class structure producing a rising middle class of industrialists and
business men, leading to Great Reform Act of 1832.
-externally: industrialisation made the UK the worlds leading economic power, a fact that fuelled
imperial expansion during the late 19th century, in 1918, the British Empire included 25% of the
worlds population.
Post-1945 Period:
• the post war consensus 1945-79
• Thatcherism 1979-97
• post-thatcherite consensus 1997-2010
• the age of austerity since 1910
• Clement Atlee’s Labour governments 1945-51
• Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative governments 1979-90
Post-War Consensus: the Atlee Labour governments established a new approach to economic and
social policy making, they wanted to move forward, major industries were nationalised, economy
was now managed by the government, using Keynesianism techniques (an economic strategy in
which growth is stimulated by allowing government spending to exceed tax revenues so creating a
budget deficit. The welfare state was expanded and the NHS was introduced, these policies aimed
to promote social justice, Tory party was converted to acceptance of social-democratic policies.
, Politics Notes AS Elliott Highmore
Thatcherism: the social-democratic consensus nevertheless started to break down in the 1970’s
as the economy began to suffer from renewed economic problems, notably rising inflation and
growing unemployment, the ‘Thatcher revolution' began in 1979, lots of many social democratic
reforms were reversed, and industries that had been nationalised became privatised, attempts
were made to reform the welfare state, to tackle the welfare dependency, this era led to counter-
revolutions against the values and policies of the social democratic period, it was an era of market
competition and self reliance.
The Post-Thatcherite Consensus: the election of Tony Blair in 1997 brought about a further shift in
the direction of post-war politics, although this was not as radical as past reforms. His ‘new’ labour
worked on the need for greater markets, competition and enterprise, a series of major
constitutional reforms were made and especially after 1999 introduced unprecedented increases in
government spending, Blair’s blend of free market policies and continued welfare provision came
to be broadly accepted by the conservatives particularly once David Cameron became party leader
in 2005, this resulted in all major parties competing for the overcrowded political ‘centre ground’
The Age of Austerity: The May 2010 general election and the formation of a Cons./Lib Dem
parliament with Cameron as the new prime minister marked the beginning of a post war new phase
in UK political history, many cuts were introduced which were dubbed ‘the age of austerity’, which
can be linked back to the global financial crisis in 2008 which led to the onset of a sharp recession,
the most serious since the 1930’s, previously Brown’s government had responded to the crisis by
nationalising failing banks, this also allowed the budget deficit. Since 2010 UK politics has been
structured ideologically by rival approaches to the deficit reduction, the conservatives showed,
through a continuing emphasis to reduce public spending, a determination to further shrink the
state, and more emphasis was placed on willing to borrow to invest, particularly in infrastructure
projects.
Social Context:
The Decline of Class: a social class is broadly a group of people who share social and political and
economic positions, people can be separated by occupation-
A. higher managerial and professional workers
B. middle managers and professionals
C. clerical workers C.2 skilled manual workers
D. semi-skilled and unskilled workers
E. unemployed, pensioners and those unable to work
during the 1950-60s UK politics was all about social class, (ABC voters) tended to support the
Conservative party, working class voters (CDE voters) tended to support the Labour party, this
meant UK politics was a battle between conservatism and socialism.
Gender and Politics: the importance of gender in politics was established by the 1960-70s
women’s movement and the growth of feminism, key reforms taken placed include the legalisation
of abortion in 1967, creation of an equal opportunities commission, and the Sex Discrimination act
of 1975, there has been an increasing number of working women, but men seem to dominate.
