Essay Plan: Exam question feedback – Parliament
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18th August 2015
Exam question feedback – Parliament
To what extent has the UK system of government become more presidential?
Indicative Content
The features of the UK system of government that show it is presidential are:
- Fixed term elections are now held in May every 5 years after the passage of the Fixed Term Parliament Act 2011, with the next election taking place on 7th May 2015
- Increasing weight of evidence for theory of presidentialism (i.e. how a prime minister exercises his/her power)
- Whitehall model of parliamentary power describes an executive with political and constitutional power, in which parliament is simply a rubber stamp and has no meaningful policy influence – this can be applied to the premiership of Blair as with such huge majorities in parliament the chambers simply came to act as a ‘rubber stamp’ and with even the most controversial issues such as tuition fees and fox hunting, the government did not suffer a single defeat
- Transformative model of parliamentary power describes a parliament who is no longer a policy making body and that although parliament is not irrelevant it simply transforms policy rather than creating it by responding or reacting to executive initiatives – this can be applied to the current situation of the coalition as parliament is simply transforming the executive’s policies from the coalition agreement into legislation
The features of the UK system of government that show it is parliamentary are:
- Fusion of powers
- Governments formed through parliamentary elections
- Overlap of personnel
- Government removable by legislature (now by two mechanisms – vote of no confidence and a clause in the Fixed Term Parliament Act by which 2/3 of the House of Commons can remove a government)
- Cabinet government
- Separate head of government and head of state
- Westminster model of parliamentary power
Appropriate use of illustrations and examples are included in this assessment objective
| AO1 | Knowledge and Understanding | |||||||||
| Level 1 (0-6 marks) |
Poor knowledge and understanding of relevant institutions, processes, political concepts, theories or debates. | |||||||||
| Level 2 (7-13 marks) |
Satisfactory knowledge and understanding of relevant institutions, processes, political concepts, theories or debates. | |||||||||
| Level 3 (14-20 marks) |
Full and developed knowledge and understanding of relevant institutions, processes, political concepts, theories or debates. | |||||||||
| AO2 | Intellectual Skills | |||||||||
| Level 1 (0-3 marks) |
Limited ability to analyse and evaluate political information, arguments and explanations, and identify parallels, connections, similarities and differences. | |||||||||
| Level 2 (4-7 marks) |
Sound ability to analyse and evaluate political information, arguments and explanations, and identify parallels, connections, similarities and differences. | |||||||||
| Level 3 (8-12 marks) |
Good or better ability to analyse and evaluate political information, arguments and explanations, and identify parallels, connections, similarities and differences. | |||||||||
| AO3 | Communication and Coherence | |||||||||
| Level 1 (0-2 marks) |
Weak ability to construct and communicate coherent arguments, making good use of appropriate vocabulary | |||||||||
| Level 2 (3-5 marks) |
Adequate ability to construct and communicate coherent arguments, making good use of appropriate vocabulary | |||||||||
| Level 3 (6-8 marks) |
Sophisticated ability to construct and communicate coherent arguments, making good use of appropriate vocabulary. | |||||||||
| AO1 (/20) | AO2 (/12) | AO3 (/8) | Total (/40) | |||||||
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| Approximate Equivalent Grade | ||||||||||
| A | B | C | D | E | U | |||||
| 28 | 25 | 23 | 20 | 18 | 16 or less | |||||
| Teacher Comment | Student Reflection |
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Targets: 1. 2. 3. |
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