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 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.

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the process of amending the Constitution. (15)

Indicative Content

There are two routes to amending the constitution outlined in its Article V, although the second named, the summoning of a constitutional convention by two thirds of the state legislatures, has never been used. The requirement of the other route, to obtain two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate and the approval of ¾ of the state legislatures, is very demanding, and only 27 amendments have passed out of many thousands proposed.

Advantages include:

• the principles of the constitution are safeguarded from short-lived popular sentiment
• the fact that 27 amendments have passed shows that amendment is possible
• it works – the US constitution is the world’s oldest functioning example

Disadvantages include:

• the constitution can become ‘fossilised’ and reforms many regard as desirable – e.g. to Senate representation and the Electoral College, or additional rights, such as the Equal Rights Amendment – are near impossible to achieve
• the difficulty of updating the constitution has encouraged the Supreme Court to assume this role
• there are uncertainties in the procedure, e.g. the length of time required to secure a ¾ majority of the state legislatures, or whether states are permitted to rescind their ratification