Complete A-Level Government and Politics Essay Plans for Paper 3A-US Politics
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Course
US Politics
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
Essay plans that cover all possible essay questions for paper 3A in Edexcel A-Level Politics. I exclusively used these essay plans to achieve an A* in my final A-Level exam.
‘Evaluate the view that the US constitution is democratic’
‘Evaluate the view that the US constitution is outdated’
‘Evaluate the extent to which the procedure for amending the US Constitution is no longer t for
purpose’
‘Evaluate the view that the US Constitution no longer lives up to its principles’
‘Evaluate the view that the US Constitution is e ective at limiting government’
‘Evaluate the view that the USA remains federal today’
‘Evaluate the extent to which the checks and balances of the US Constitution are still e ective
today’
‘Evaluate the view that the US constitution is more e ective at checking the power of the
president than it is at checking the power of Congress’
2.US Congress
‘Evaluate the view that Congress can fairly be considered to be ‘the broken Branch’’
‘Evaluate the view that Congress ful ls its representative function’
‘Evaluate the view that Congressional oversight of the President is e ective’
‘Evaluate the view that Congress ful ls its oversight function e ectively’
‘Evaluate the view that the Senate is more powerful than the House’
‘Evaluate the extent to which constituents are the most important in uence on members of
Congress’
3.US Presidency
‘Evaluate the extent to which there is an ‘imperial presidency’ in the US’
‘To what extent is the President’s power of persuasion a signi cant power?’
‘Evaluate the view that domestic policy is dominated by congress and not the president’
‘Evaluate the view that US foreign policy is dominated as much by Congress as by the
presidency’
‘Evaluate the view that informal sources of Presidential power are more signi cant that formal
sources’
4.US Supreme Court and Civil Rights
‘Evaluate the view that a rmative action has been successful’
‘Evaluate the extent to which the Supreme Court can be considered a political institution’
‘Evaluate the extent to which racial equality has been achieved today in the US’
5.US Democracy and Participation
‘Evaluate the extent to which the electoral college is no longer t for purpose’
‘Evaluate the extent to which the US political system allows for the success of interest groups’
‘Evaluate the view that incumbency is the most signi cant factor in deciding election outcomes’
‘Evaluate the extent to which interest groups are in uential’
‘Evaluate the view that interest groups enhance democracy in the USA’
‘Evaluate the view that the Republican Party is more divided than the Democrat party’
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, 1.US Constitution
‘Evaluate the view that the US constitution is democratic’
Paragraph 1-Protection of rights:
-BOR, alongside 14th amendment(equal protection for all), gives legal protection to those in the
US-1st amendment=religious freedom, 8th=freedom from racial discrimination
-Entrenched as constitution=codi ed as FFs wanted to make it hard to amend as to protect rights
e ectively and recent it being changed unless clear consensus(to amend supermajorities in both
houses and states)
-SCOTUS can refer directly to codi ed constitution to determine whether rights have been
infringed upon and act accordingly
-System is fair/democratic as all groups have equal democratic rights to participate and thus elect
people who will advance their interests(conservative view)
-Citizens protected against excessive government control
-Rights not protected(liberal view) as system of checks and balances deliberately protects the
interests of the few, not the many-change is made extremely di cult which means that the
conservative nature of the constitution protects the economic elites who hold the power
-Due to very strong checks and balances between branches(purposely put in place by FFs to
prevent any one branch from becoming tyrannical)-Montesquieu ‘power should be a check to
power’
-Strong checks and balances and tough amendment process means that it is hard to alter the
constitution to align with modern issues
-Shelby v Holder in SCOTUS struck down 1965 Voting Rights Act leading to discriminatory laws
that reduced minority groups ability to vote in numerous states
-Black Lives Matter, George Floyd have highlighted the institutionalised racism hat the
constitution has failed to x
Paragraph 2-Electoral system:
Paragraph 3-Checks and balances:
-Extensive checks and balances implemented purposely by the FFs are e ective in preventing any
one branch from becoming tyrannical-Bush requested a line-item veto power, but COTUS denied
him
-C+B often lead to gridlock in COTUS=no legislation gets passed inhibiting reform and thus
undemocratic
-Filibuster=in constitution and is undemocratic-24 hour libuster civil rights
-Gridlock means that COTUS cannot perform its functions e ectively and so isn’t ful lling its
democratic duties-exacerbated by hyper-partisanship after 1994
-2-3% of bills are passed in COTUS
‘Evaluate the view that the US constitution is outdated’
Paragraph 1-Hard to amend:
-Article 5 outlines amendment process
-Di cult to incorporate new ideas that respond to societal changes/remove outdated laws-views
have changed dramatically since 1787-entrenchment means that very hard to
-Despite change in attitudes towards equal rights, the Equal Rights Amendment failed in 1982,
with persistent attempts to reintroduce the ERA in COTUS making little progress
-12000 proposed amendments but only 27 have been successful
-Change is made di cult which protects the economic elites that the OG constitution was biased
towards(Shelby v Holder)
-Di cult to remove outdated aspects of the constitution eg election of president via electoral
college was established due to fears that people would not make rational decisions, allowing the
people only to vote for an electoral college of voters who would decide who the president would
be-electoral college would never reject the will of the people today but system has brought
downsides eg win with less of popular vote eg Clinton
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, -Tyranny of minority and goes against majoritarian democracy as only 13 states need to oppose
an amendment for it not to pass
-Prevents ill-thought-through amendments-makes sure that all amendments are thoroughly
considered and there is clear consensus on the issue-need for supermajorities in both houses and
states
-Protects states and upholds federalism by giving them a say in amendment process
-Amendment process is su ciently robust to prevent amendments made on a whim-deliberately
done by FFs(set out in Article V)-can’t be changed according to short term trends
-Prevents any one branch from becoming tyrannical or amending constitution to bene t them
-Proposed exclusion of gay rights(federal marriage amendment) if passed in early 2000s could
have been seen as outdated today
-Prevents abuse of power-protects from one tyrannical government majorly altering the
constitution in an undemocratic manner
Paragraph 2-Vagueness:
-Allows individual justices to apply their own ideologies when ruling on a case=undemocratic
-McCulloch v Maryland 1819, SCOTUS tested the necessary and proper clause and ruled that
COTUS has the power to create a national bank, even though the right to create a bank is not
explicitly stated in the constitution
-Marbury v Madison established judicial review which led to increased justice power as they could
choose to interpret constitution(depends if loose constructionist)
-8th Amendment ‘cruel and unusual’ phrase has been used to justify the death penalty while
others say that it is unconstitutional
-Lack of clarity leads to strong disputes with each side claiming that their view of the constitution
is more legitimate-this is often based on ideology and further fuels divisions within US society-eg
conservatives and liberals continue to argue about how far the constitution allows federal
government to control the states-increasing divide between dem and rep over gay rights, race
and policies such as A ordable Care Act
-Has allowed for interpretations that the FFs never envisaged(necessarily a bad thing?)
-Vagueness allows COTUS to stretch its powers-elastic clause(Article 1)-allowed for broad
interpretation=implied powers and ensures that constitution remains up to date
-A ordable Healthcare Act/Obamacare 2010 was able to be passed due to the elastic clause
because it was for the ‘general welfare’
-Roe v Wade(before overturned), court declared that a woman’s right to abortion fell within the
right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment
-Judges can adapt rights so that they apply to modern day
Paragraph 3-Separation of powers:
-Some aspects of constitution don’t work as intended by the FFs-current federal dominance over
state-SCOTUS increasingly rules in favour of federal government over the states
-FFs did not account for party polarisation that occurred following 1994(Newt Gingrich ‘contract
with America’-hyper-partisanship)-equal branches has led to gridlock now in environment of
hyper-partisanship
-Has inhibited progress/prevented legislation from being passed e ectively(2-3% of bills are
passed whereas 6-7% in the 1980s) and caused repeated government shutdowns
-‘Shared powers’ means that there has to be bipartisan cooperation between the parties,
especially during divided government if anything is to be achieved
-Checks and balances and the short election cycle in the HORs ensures the government has to
work in the interests of the people and remain responsive to public opinion-‘All politics is local’Tip
O’Neil
‘Evaluate the extent to which the procedure for amending the US Constitution is no longer t for
purpose’
Lay out the procedure for amending in the introduction
Paragraph 1-Constitution remains outdated:
-Di cult to incorporate new ideas that respond to societal changes/remove outdated laws-views
have changed dramatically since 1787-entrenchment means that very hard to
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