Revision & Exam Practice for the “legacy” A Level qualifications including:

• Edexcel (Unit 3C – Representative Processes in the USA, Unit 4C – Governing the USA)
• AQA (Unit 3A – The Politics of the USA, Unit 4A – The Government of the USA)
• OCR (F855 – US Government & Politics)

REVISE THE US CONSTITUTION

How to use these questions for revision and exam practice:

1. For long-answer or essay questions, plan a 4 paragraph response using the PEEACH paragraph structure (P=point, E=evidence, E=explain, A=argument, C=counter argument, H=how does this answer the question?)
2. Once you have completed your question, read the indicative content.
3. Using the essay criteria, colour code each criteria to show how successful you were at including this in your essay (red, amber or green)
4. There is also a space for you to add additional notes and/or examples that don’t appear in the indicative content, or add better explanations, or include additional, points from the indicative content.

‘The US constitution is no longer fit for purpose.’ Discuss.

Indicative Content

Arguments that the constitution is no longer fit for purpose include:

• there are too many checks and balances, with the consequence that the system can become gridlocked
• the difficulty of amending it and the survival of (arguably) archaic elements such as the second amendment
• the power of judicial review has created an ‘imperial judiciary’
• the unrepresentative nature of the Senate
• the archaic mechanism of the Electoral College can mean that winner of the popular vote is denied the presidency
• House elections are too frequent, meaning that representatives are constantly campaigning
• lack of term limits in Congress creates an unrepresentative elite

Arguments that the constitution is functioning satisfactorily include:

• a degree of ‘gridlock’ ensures that ill-thought out policy cannot be rushed through
• the constitution is sufficiently vague to allow necessary changes to occur, e.g. power has moved from Congress to the executive and the states to the federal government to meet societal needs
• the constitution has been amended to reflect changes in values, e.g the Senate is now elected by popular vote
• both the Senate and the Electoral College are an important element of the federal identity of the constitution
• it has survived for 200+ years