Government and Politics

Course summary

Few subjects are as central to our everyday lives as politics. It is about people and power, who has it and how they use it. Politics focuses on studying modern society and the relationships between people, political systems and political ideas. If you want to understand how our nation works, how UK politics is different to the politics of the USA and how we might improve our community and country, then Government and Politics is the course for you. Developing a wide range of transferrable skills such as researching and analysing information, argument and evaluation, we consider important concepts such as democracy, power and influence. We will analyse how the UK parliament and government works, and why some are now calling for big changes to the current political system. We will also examine key political beliefs such as Liberalism, Socialism and Conservatism that have shaped the UK political system and the impact of newer ideas such as Environmentalism or Feminism. We also explore a comparative topic, looking at the USA political system in detail, as an important democratic contrast to the UK.