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Higher Politics- Essay Plans

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St Joseph's Academy Higher Politics

East Ayrshire Council site

Category: Miss Devanney

Political parties and elections – voting behaviour theories.

1. Factors effecting Voting Behaviour

2. Sociological Model Article

2. Sociological Model

2. Rational Choice Model

3. The Party Identification Model

Voting Behaviour Theories Essay Plan – 20 marker

Paper 2 – Data Analysis Question

Data Analysis Question Guide

Question Help Table

Political Systems – Executives

1. Introduction to Executives

2. The Prime Minister

Role of the PM Reading

3. The President of the USA

Prime Minister Reading 1 Link

Prime Minister Reading 2

Prime Minister Reading 3

President Reading 1 Link

President Reading 2

President Reading 3

Essay Guidance – President vs Prime Minister

Essay guidance PDF Doc

Political Systems – Legislatures

1. The UK Legislature (Background)

2. How laws are created UK

3. The US Congress (Background)

4. How Laws are Created USA

5. 20 Mark Essay – Legislation – Origin and Passage

9. Origin and Passage Essay Guide

6. Scrutiny in the UK

HOMEWORK: watch the following mini-documentary on Select Committees and their work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLvNmMJmD0w

7. Scrutiny in the USA

7. Committees Comparison

8. Comparison of the Legislative Branches – Scrutiny

Source Questions – Comparison Questions

Comparison Questions

Higher Politics – Essay Structure and Marking Guidance

Higher Politics Essay Guidance and Marking Structure

Political Systems – Constitutions

What is a Constitution?

What is a constitution?: video link

2. Sources of the UK Constitution

3. The Nature of the UK Constitution

3. GCHQ Rule of Law Article

4. The US Constitution

4. US Constitution Reading Hwrk

5. Comparing Constitutions

6. Constitutions Essay – 12 marker

7. Constitutions Essay – 20 marker

8. The Judiciary

8. The-myth-of-judicial-neutrality-USA

8. What-is-Judicial-Independence-Article

Complete the extended reading on the US Constitution (on the blog) and answer the following questions in detail.

1.Explain the difference between the reserved powers and concurrent powers outlined in the US Constitution.

2.Describe, in detail, the process of amending the Constitution of the USA.

3.Explain why the Constitution has been amended so little in the past 200 years.

4.For each branch of the government choose ONE way it can check another branch and, using examples, describe what the check is.

5.Why was limited government an important component of the Constitution for the Constitution Convention members?

6.Choose 3 ways in which the federal-state relationship has changed over time and describe the change in your own words.

Miss Devanney 😀

Introduction to Higher Politics

Higher Politics Intro

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Higher politics essays, ‘the rational choice model is now a dominant theory of voting behaviour in the, uk.’ discuss., voting theories are used to explain why people vote the way they do. factors are complex and, interrelated parties need to understand voting behaviour to maximise their electoral performance. this, essay will talk about each of the following factors, sociological theory and party identification theory., this essay will argue that rational choice theory is the most dominant theory. one key aspect of the, rational choice theory is party leaders and it has a huge effect on voting behaviour. during the time of, elections party leaders can massively influence voting behaviour. those who do not usually vote a, certain way are influenced by a charismatic leader. these can often be further influenced by opinion, polls or focus groups such as ipos mori, as they have both been proven to shape the public's attitude, towards leaders if they are published pre-election time. an example of this would be nick clegg as his, party achieved electoral success after his performance on a tv debate in 2010 which gained him the, nickname ‘cleggmania’. however after his coalition with the conservative government he was seen as a, failure of a leader and a symbol of weakness. this shows us that party leaders can have a massive, influence on how a party will receive electoral success during elections. nick clegg has a successful, performance due to how he presented himself during a debate this better the party's performance., however, leaders can have a negative impact on a party's performance as after nick clegg's coalition, with the conservatives he was seen as a failure of a party and a symbol of weakness., another key aspect of the rational choice is that of single issue voting and its effect on voting behaviour., issue voting plays a significant part in this model as it assumes that the big issues of each election are, able to influence and shape the result more than traditional voting factors such as class and gender., these issues can vary depending on the election issues like nhs, brexit, the war in iraq have been very, important factors over the years. one such issue was the independence referendum in scotland 2014, which saw membership rise and votes in the 2015 ge. for example, in the ge2010 the lib dems, promised not to introduce university tuition fees. this policy was extremely popular with younger voters, who pay these fees, resulting in a strong electoral performance for the lib dems. however, during their, coalition with the conservative government, tuition fees were introduced and in the 2015 ge young, voters abandoned the lib dems because they failed to live up to their promises. this shows that single, issue voting can make or break the success of a political party in an election. the lib dems clearly gained, support in 2010 for their manifesto promises on tuition fees but lost support in 2015 as they were, retrospectively judged for failing to implement this policy. however, a single issue can not be an, indicator on how people will vote. as labour led out the conservatives on 3 of the 4 big issues in the, elections but the conservatives still won a majority of seats., a new voting theory would be the sociological model. it has a big impact on the way people vote., traditionally, social class was seen to be the most important factor associated with voting behaviour. in, 1967, peter pulzer claimed that “class is the basis of british party politics all else embellishment and, detail” the sociological model argues that a person's class will be the best indicator on how they will, vote. social class is a measure of a person's status in society; it takes into account wealth, occupation, and education. it is seen that there's a consistent pattern of class-voting. for example in the 2017ge, 44% of d/e voters chose labour but on the other hand 46% of the a/b class chose conservatives. this, shows us that a person's class is a big indicator of how people will vote. as those who are in the d/e, class typically vote labour which is seen as a ‘working class party’ showing that parties have links to, certain social classes making people vote for them. however, a person's social class can not be an, indicator on how people will vote as there's new employment patterns and changing attitudes in society, which tells us that voters are less likely to vote according to their social class. lastly, another voting, theory would be the party identification theory. it is widely assumed that many voters have loyalties to, certain parties that ensure after election and during elections. it is more over typically assumed that, these long-term loyalties are people who identify with parties which are called electors. electors see the, party that they vote for as ‘their’ party. this model places heavy stress on early socialisation, seeing their, family as the main reason why many vote the way they do which tells us that political loyalties are, forged. then these tend to be altered or reinforced later in life with groups, marriages, location and, social status. an example of this would be that in 2001, 2005 , 2010, 2015 elections most of the d/e class, voted for labour. this shows us that party identification is an important theory. as it tells us that most, people who identify with a party do this due to their upbringing. we are shown this in the recent, elections as most of the d/e party voted for labour which is seen as the working class party. however,, this theory is not a big indicator as it doesn't explain why people out of the party's target audience vote, the way they do so this theory doesn't explain floater voters., in conclusion, compared to the other theories, the rational choice theory of voting behaviour is the most, important in explaining voting behaviour in recent elections. on the one hand, in pre-1970’s elections, the sociological model was dominant but it has declined in importance specifically due to class, dealignment and the electorates’ increase in political literacy. party identification is also less relevant as, there has been a decline in the long-term attachment voters have to a political party. on the other hand,, this means that the rational choice model is now the most relevant. this could be due to an increase in, political knowledge with the availability of the internet. this has been compounded by class dealignment, which has weakened the link between social class and voting behaviour. voters are much more volatile, than previously and are much less likely to be attached to a political party. this means there is an, increase in the number of floating voters. these voters, as they are less likely to be attached to a party,, may be much more likely to be influenced by short-term factors such as the effectiveness of a party’s, campaign, the significance of key policies or the perception of a party’s leader. overall, the 2017 general, election showed there were significant changes in support for the main parties during the campaign and, this was attributed to the effectiveness of labour’s campaign, the poor reaction to conservative, manifesto policies such as social care and improving perceptions of jeremy corbyn’s leadership, to what extent do dominant ideas of a political party have a positive impact on, their electoral performance’, the question of the impact of the dominant ideas of a political party on their electoral performance is, widely debated. in this essay i will discuss dominant ideas of both the snp and the conservatives in the, 2015 general election including national identity, the economy and their approaches to policies. each of, these must be examined in light of electoral data to identify the impact each of these points has on a, party. this essay will argue that while dominant ideas are undoubtedly important, it is not always easy, to predict how voters will react in elections and it's a combination of factors that influence electoral, 48% to stay - 52% to leave. a fairly traditional set of right-wing conservative economic policies and the, promise of the brexit vote allowed the conservative party to enjoy success in the 2015 election., however, david cameron was also viewed as a mostly pragmatic leader who did not have particularly, strong views on most issues. his success in the 2015 election could be down to him being a confident, spokesperson and leader. one dominant idea of the snp is their anti- austerity economic approach, which in 2015 was in direct contrast to the ‘austerity’ measures being pursued by the conservative, government. austerity was a policy introduced to reduce the public deficit by making cuts to services., the snp created ‘anti-austerity measures to counteract the impact of these cuts in scotland. the cuts, which have happened in scotland include benefits, healthcare and public-sector jobs as a result of the, conservatives austerity measures. the snp have pledged to defend scotland from austerity. nicola, sturgeon promised to fight to end cuts for all over britain. in doing so, the snp was appealing to labour, voters in the party's heartland of central scotland. for example conservatives reduced public spending,, increased tax to £110 billion and cut £3 billion in disability benefits and in the 2015 manifesto the snp, directly opposed these cuts including increasing spending by 0% a year and increasing income tax back, up to 50p for top earners. this shows the success of the snp parties anti-austerity economic policies as, in 2015 they won the majority of seats within scotland leaving the conservative party with 1 seat in, scotland showing the unpredicted success of the snps dominant policies. the no vote in the, independence referendum combined with the snp victory 6 months later suggests that the snp voters, favour the snp not because of their stance on independence but another dominant idea like anti-, austerity. a final dominant idea of the snp is their collectivist approach to their policies in which they, aim to ensure that their policies will benefit all of society and not just the select few. collectivist policies, were another main focus in the snp general election manifesto in 2015. as a centre-left party the snp, have maintained collectivist policies that should benefit all of society, not just the select few. the snp, supports social-progressive policies which means redistribution of wealth, power and assets. the snps, 2015 manifesto included these policies but this was the snps most left-wing manifesto as it was seen, defending the poorest society and it was seen to do better than labour's attempt. the labour leader, kezia dugdale criticised the policies in the snp manifesto by saying that they are all unaffordable in the, long run. an example of one of the snps 2015 manifesto policies would be the free university tuition in, scotland which would allow the poorest able to access higher education in comparison with england, which university costs £9,250 a year. the snp enjoyed success in 2015 with winning a majority in, scotland and this may be due to their collectivist policies. which did not just appeal to a certain age, group but a range of policies like free prescription will benefit not just the oldest in society but the, youngest as well. the free baby box scheme as well would grab the votes of new parents and help them, out. ultimately the snp will never be able to form the uk government as they have failed to get the uk, government to change their stance on other dominant ideas. in conclusion, the dominant ideas of, political parties have mostly a positive impact on their electoral success the one hand, while, dominant ideas relating to a political party national identity are effective in gaining a party some, success, it is not effective in helping them to win an election. even though the scottish independence, referendum in 2014 results showed 55% voted no and 45% voted yes showing the snp had a large, amount of support already, they had their most successful election in 2015 when they dropped the issue, of independence. whereas the conservatives have gained more support when their party leader, pressed for decisive action on the issue of brexit with the party winning more votes in 2019 when boris, pushed to “get brexit done” compared to may’s outcome in 2017 when she lost her overall majority. on, the other hand, the party's views on the economy and their policies are far more effective in helping, them to gain electoral success. the no vote in 2014 combined with the unprecedented electoral success, in 2015 for the snp suggests that voters favour them due to their progressive and anti-austerity policies, rather than their views on independence. however, despite the conservatives austerity policies which, resulted in heavy public sector cuts they maintained their support from english voters suggesting that, their policies were approved by voters. overall, it is clear that no one dominant idea alone is responsible, for a party’s electoral success but that a combination, particularly their policies alongside national, identity, are vital for parties to be successful in gaining votes., campaign strategy’s higher, media strategy, media strategy allows political parties to reach wider audiences, than ever before and project their message, however this is, most often in conjunction with, and not at the expense of,, traditional grassroots campaigning and new technology. this is, because traditional campaigning allows parties to engage with, people at a local level and engage with voters more directly,, whereas new technology is easier to use to advertise to a mass, audience and is also-more effective when advertising to the, younger sections of the electorate:, a media strategy that is effective during elections is televised, debates. this means that its customary for the leader's political, parties to be involves in televised debates approaching, elections. these debates are some of the most watched, programmes on tv and give the parties a chance to answer, questions from the electorate ad project a good image as they, are watched by millions (jeremy corbyn and boris johnson's, debate was watched over 6 miltion people). however, their, effectiveness is altered by the fact that leaders have little, control over how they are portrayed by journalists and, moderatos, so they can sometimes sour a party's image as a, result. for example, thresa may gained a poor reputation after, not showing up to any debates in 2017, which made her seem, too arrogant to the electorate., contrastingly, an effective grassroots campaign that parties, can use is mobilising local turnout. this means•that in 2017, contrastingly, an effective new technology strategy that parties, can uses social media advertising. this means that because, social-media platforms such as facebook lack the content, regulations of television, parties can put out attack style ads, that would.not shown anywhere else. additionally, while, these ads allow parties to more openly attack opposition in an, attempt to gain support, they can become controversial as, parties have been accused of pushing the boundaries and, spreading misinformation, such as the conservatives tweeting, rom a fake jeremy corbyn account during the debaté. for, example, an attack-style ad by the conservatives against, corbyn in 2019 was viewed 7 million times, which means they, are effective because they reach the wide audiences that pebs, don't., consequently, the media strategy of pebs is not as effective as, the new technology strategy of social media ads because while, they both allow parties to have full control over their, messaging, pebs are mot watched and re often, skipped.by not already interested in the party, ruining, their efficiency, whereas social media ads are easier to rich, voters, are shorter and more entertaining. which is why they, will be viewed more often and by people outside of existing, supporters, making them more effective. additionally, it could, also be argued that social media give parties even more control, than pebs because they an say what they want without having, to worry about regulations.., another media strategy that an be used effectively by political, parties is spin doctors. this means that parties will sometimes, hires sort of image consultants that can help the leader of the, party gain a positive reputation and spin things to look in their, favour. thyer ae often in charge of the campaigning and play a, big part in the leader's public appearances and public image,, often times spin doctors being able to secure a leader's ability, to et elected, while a bad spin doctor like david axelrod may, damage a party's image and affect them financially as they are, very expensive to hire. for example, theresa may hired famous, spin doctor lyndon crosby to help in 2017; crosby has been, described as a "master of the dark arts" and the "lizard, of oz" due to his ability to influence the outcome, . of political campaigns., contrastingly, a traditional campaign that can be used, effectively by a party is canvassing., this means that parties workers and volunteers will often go, door to door and speak to the electorate, which is effective, because it allows for two-way communication to occur., additionally, through canvassing parties can answer questions, and address the worries of the electorate, while a pity leader, canyassing and having a good presence can greatly repair they, image and make the electorate trust them.. moreover, around, election time parties can often use canvassing to bus in new, supporters. for example, in 2017 ilford north had more door-t-, door campaigning from labour than any other party, which led, to labour overturning a conservative majority and growing,, support by. 9%., consequently, the media of spin doctors is less, effective than the traditional, •strategy of canvassing. this is because even hiring a good, spin doctor will not guarantee success as even with crosby's, help theresa may was not able to fix her reputation, and they., can sometimes be a very expensive mistake, as labour hiring, david axelrod in for £300,000 still resulted in them losing the, election, as he was uninterested in the party, thus making, canvassing more effective and better at managing a party's, image because communication with te électorate is direct and, unmediated and questions can be answered that will sway the, electorate or put them àt ease., a final effective media strategy that can be used by political, parties is-relationship with the press. this means that a good, relationship with the press sis important because newspapers, will often take sides and a newspaper switching side from one, party, to another is often taken as a blow to. the party's image., additionally, even jeremy corbyn, after doing well' in 2017, despite poor relationship with the press, started to blame them, in 2019 for his fall in popularity. moreover, politicians have a, history of trying to have a good relationship with the press and, it's mostly used by young people, which are te least likely, demographic to vote. the use of grassroots campaigning is, undoubtably the most effective because it allows parties to, engage directly with the lectorate and target all sections, as, well as providing them with a better image f they engage with, voters consistently., grassroot campaign vs new technology strategy, traditional grassroots campaign strategies are the strategies, which have been used by political parties for many years in, their efforts to convince members of the electorate to vote for, them in upcoming elections. however, some commentators, have suggested that their influence has dwindled in recent, years, particularly in the advent of new technology. others,, however, state that traditional methods still have a much, greater impact on the electoral performance of political parties, than the use of new technology. there is also, though, the, argument to be made that media is an essential part of, campaign management strategies., one traditional grassroots campaign strategy still in use today, is the use of door-to-door canvassing. this is perhaps the most, popular image of a politician in the lead up to an election -, going door knocking and speaking to constituents and, members of the public in an effort to talk to them about key, issues and convince them that it is in their best interests to, vote for that candidate and their party., canvassing nowadays is more likely to involve large groups of, volunteers and party activists rather than just the politician, themselves and a small team, but the fact still remains that it is, one of the most essential ways to influence the way a person, votes - after all, research shows that conversations at the pub, are still one of the most important ways of influencing the way, that a person will vote, so it is clear that human contact is, essential in order to attempt to persuade someone to vote for, you. in the run up to the 2015 uk general election, the then-, head of the labour party, ed miliband, pledged that labour, would have "four million conversations" with voters by the time, of the election., jon ashworth mp and his team were among the most proficient, of candidates with their canvassing, and this canvassing is, largely considered to be the reason that jon ashworth mp, received around 60% of the vote in his constituency, increasing, labour's share of the vote by around 14%. however, it is clear, that canvassing cannot make-or-break the result of an election,, due to the fact that the labour party still lost the 2015 election., however, it can still be considered to be extremely important, when combined with other factors. in 2017, for instance, a, group of labour-supporting activists known as momentum, launched a campaign called my nearest marginal in order to try, to canvas in key marginal seats. the campaign centered, around an app which labour supporters and momentum, members could use to see the closest marginal seats to them,, and the use of carpools in order to get activists to these places., the campaign also teamed new activists with those who were, more experienced at canvassing, and meant that the activists, were able to storm marginal seats in their droves., momentum states that more than 100,000 people accessed, their website in the run up to the 2017 election. while labour, still lost the election, their canvassing policy, and the work of, momentum, can be taken into consideration when considering, why exactly the party received their biggest change in the, share of the vote for a labour leader since clement atlee., therefore, whilst canvassing on its own cannot win an election,, when combined with other factors, it can certainly help to make, a difference to the popularity of a party. the combination of the, traditional grassroots campaign method of canvassing and the, new technology used by momentum did certainly allow for a, massive growth of the labour party in the 2017 uk general, another traditional grassroots campaign strategy still being, implemented today is the use of battle buses. battle buses, were a stroke of genius when they were first implemented in, to make a strong and visible political statement. however, on, their own, battle buses are generally ineffective in influencing, the result of an election. when combined with other factors,, such as the conservatives transporting canvassers on their, battle buses, the scheme is significantly more effective., parties also utilise new technology during their election, campaigns. one new technological campaign strategy used by, political parties in order to influence their electoral performance, was the use of votesource by the conservative party in 2015., votesource was a database designed to replace the old merlin, voter database. it would contain all of the electoral data, researched by the conservative party, and be available to, canvassers and party members in order to allow them to target, voters. the scheme was particularly effective when lutilised in, combination with canvassing and leaflets, and would assign a, 'squeeze' message to every household on the system - that is,, a message which would target them individually and attempt to, convince them that it was in their best interests to vote, conversative. for example, if a person was a likely seven-out-, of-ten to vote conversative, but a nine-out-of-ter to vote ukip,, and hated labour more than either of them, the message would, be 'don't vote ukip or you'll let labour in'. the scheme was a, massive success, and it can attributed at least in part to, votesource that the conservative party won the 2015 general, election. however, many politicians and party members, complained to party cochair lord feldman after they tired of, their data being saved incorrectly, and at least one association, threatened to go back to a card system in order contain their, information due to their disgruntlement at the system., therefore, this use of modern technology was a huge success, for the conversative party, and allowed them a great deal of, influence and power in the election. however, the system was, not fullproof, as votesource crashed on polling day., nevertheless, it could be said that the individual, targeted, campaigning in the weeks and months leading up to the, election meant that this was not a large issue., finally, parties also utilise media as a campaign strategy. one, example of this is television. in the run up to the 2015 general, election, david cameron hired two new advisors to help him, run his campaign. during the last election, the live television, leaders' debates proved to be much more significant than, anyone was epxecting in affecting the outcome of the election, and in the opinion polls leading up to polling day. cameron's, new advisors guided him, and it was probably due to their, influence that he insisted on having the leaders of all the major, parties together for at least one direct debate - the only direct, debate he took part in that year. the result was television, chaos, but the advisors and cameron had successfully prepared, for such an eventuality. cameron was able to insert soundbites, into his opening speech and into the first arguments of the, evening - small clips of himself repeating key pledges which, would be edited down by hurried editors in time for the ten, o'clock news. while the polls suggested that there was no clear, winner of the shambolic television debate, it was still a success, for cameron and his team, as he was able to get his message, out there without embarrassing himself in a direct debate, against just a few leaders. nicola sturgeon was also considered, to have performed well during the television debates, and it, was perhaps this, when combined with other factors such as, the independence referendum, which ensured that the sp, completely dominated in scotland in the 2015 general election., on the other hand, television can be shown to have a negative, impact on leaders. theresa may refused to take part in debates, in 2017, sending other high-ranking politicians in her stead. tim, farrow, then-leader of the liberal democrats, accused may on, live television of "running scared", which completely, undermined her campaign of being a strong and stable leader., this also had a large impact on may's campaign, given that, "strong and stable leadership" was indeed the tagline to the, entire conversative 2017 general election campaign., therefore, television can have both a positive and negative, impact on a leader's performance, but it is again not a make-or-, break part of a campaign. the impact that debates, for, instance, have on opinion polls can often be considered to be.

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