No-one is unaffected by politics. Speaking very broadly, it is about the way people organize their lives together in a community….studying and talking about politics are a necessary part of the good life which we seek.
John Kingdom, Politics Lecturer
The famous eighteenth century politician Edmund Burke is once said to have remarked that, “All that is required for evil to triumph is that good men stay silent”*. Studying politics is all about making sure the good men don’t stay silent. It is about understanding the system that governs us; about being able to challenge that system when we need to; about how we might be involved; about speaking up for those who can’t. In any society, but especially a democracy, no-one should be willing to simply stay silent. Knowing and understanding the political system is the essential first step to undertaking our democratic responsibilities. With the impact of government over-reach during the Covid crisis, the Brexit referendum and the recent presidency of Donald Trump, politics has certainly been an exciting, relevant and dynamic study.
* Though famously attributed to Burke, he almost certainly didn’t say it; an early example of fake news!
The A-level course is aimed at increasing our understanding of first British politics together with the key ideologies that make up most of our political discourse, and then rounded off with a comparative study of US politics, the greatest political circus on the planet. Students will be tested in three exams at the end of their U6th year.
Exam Board AQA:
https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/politics/specifications/AQA-7152-SP-2017.PDF