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)

How to use these questions for revision and exam practice:

1. For short-answer questions, write a 3 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 and the mark scheme.
3. Complete the “Make It Better” (MIB) Task:
   1. Highlight the parts of the indicative content your were able to fully explain and exemplify in green.
   2. Highlight the parts of the indicative content you partially explained and/or exemplified in yellow.
   3. Highlight the parts of the indicative content which you did not include in red.
4. Using the mark scheme, award yourself a level and a mark – compare this to your target grade – are you on track to achieve this in the examination?
5. 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.

What are civil rights and how far have they been achieved in the USA? (15)

Indicative Content

• Historically, civil rights in the US are associated with the Civil Rights Movement, which culminated in a series of measures, principally the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act. These ended segregation, and discrimination in areas such as housing, and guaranteed a universal franchise.
• Consistent with this history, civil rights can be narrowly defined as the right to be free from discrimination on grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation etc., and the ability to play a full part in civil and political life.
• More broadly, civil rights can also be seen as all the basic freedoms of the citizens of a state, i.e. the rights often referred to as civil liberties.
• Both are derived from a variety of sources: the constitution (particularly the Bill of Rights and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments), federal and state legislation, and Supreme Court decisions. Supreme Court decisions have extended rights to include, for example, abortion and homosexuality.

Evidence that civil rights have not yet been achieved, or are at least not secure, could include:

• measures passed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 2001
• lack of a constitutional amendment guaranteeing female equality
• only some states permit homosexual marriage
• persistent evidence of discrimination against minorities by employers and law enforcement agencies
• lack of minority representation in the Senate
• lack of status for 12M illegal immigrants