You are now going to attempt the 2018 Past Paper question on the legislative branch:

Compare the passage of legislation in two political systems you have studied.

This question is worth 12 marks.

Under examination conditions, the writing of a response to this style of question should take no more than 25 minutes.

You are not going to write your response to this question under examination conditions, so you should expect this task to take around 1 hour to complete.

For 12-mark responses, a maximum of 8 marks can be awarded for knowledge and understanding (description, explanation and exemplification) and the remaining four marks for demonstration of the higher-order skill of analysis. 

It is advisable to include 4 descriptive points, 4 examples and 4 pieces of analysis.

You should include three separate paragraphs.

There is no requirement for you to write an introduction or conclusion for a 12-mark extended response style question.

The following are some ideas that you could include in your response:

• origin of legislation in the UK and USA: in UK most bills are government bills and few opportunities for introduction of private members’ bills, in the USA
• bills are exclusively sponsored by senators and representatives
• Parliamentary and Congressional processes and stages for the passage of legislation
• role and impact of committees in UK and USA
• extent of Executive control of the legislative process, including party discipline and the role of whips
• position of Head of State in the legislative process
• status of different chambers within both political systems.

Remember: do not write half an essay on the UK and half on the US. You need to identify three themes and write about the two systems within each paragraph, comparing throughout.

You can upload your response to your student folder.

2019 Past Paper

To what extent can legislatures effectively scrutinise the actions of government?

You must refer to two political systems you have studied.