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 PRESIDENCY

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.

Assess the significance of the Cabinet in the executive branch. (15)

Indicative Content

Factors which give the cabinet significance include:

• the cabinet symbolises the unity of the executive and its representation of all parts of
• American society
• the president can present policy to the cabinet which affects all its members, such as the annual budget
• some presidents have used cabinet meetings to discuss policy
• some individual members, such as the secretary of state, are almost always ‘heayweights’ with significant influence on important areas of policy

Factors which suggest the cabinet lacks significance include:

• there is no tradition of collective decision-making
• it is likely to be a disparate collection of individuals appointed for a variety of reasons with little to bind them together
• presidents are aware that cabinet members’ loyalties are divided between the administration and Congress
• cabinet members may become preoccupied with running their own departments and consequently have little to contribute to overall administration strategy
• they are likely to be in competition for influence with their departmental equivalent in the EOP