This task links to the Course Assessment Specification (CAS): Democracy - the nature of democracy and different forms of democracy & theorists.

We are now going to undertake some wider reading to help us develop our understanding of democracy as a political idea. 

A C Grayling is a British philosopher and author. You can read more about him here. He has written over 30 books and in this unit of the course, we will read a selection of his work. The first chapter that we will read is from his book, 'Democracy and its Crisis', published in 2017. You can find the chapter attached to this post.

After you have read this chapter, write a 250 word synopsis of Grayling's main line of argument. 

You may upload your response to your student folder. 

This task links to the Course Assessment Specification (CAS): Democracy - arguments for and against direct democracy

We now are aware of the different forms that democracy can take. We now need to explore one form of democracy in greater depth: direct democracy. 

Watch the video lesson above to help you develop your understanding of this form of democracy. As you watch, think about the key question shown below: 

This task links to the Course Assessment Specification (CAS): Democracy - the nature of democracy and different forms of democracy & theorists such as Plato.

We are now going to undertake some wider reading to continue to develop our understanding of democracy as a political idea. 

Plato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He held strong views on democracy and believed it to be a disastrous political idea.

You can read more about Plato here. As we need to develop our understanding of theorists' views on democracy, we should now read the following short extract from Jonathan Wolff's book which is attached to this post above.

Once you have read this chapter, write a 250 word synopsis of Plato's main line of argument. 

You may upload your response to your student folder.

This task links to the Course Assessment Specification (CAS): Democracy - arguments for and against representative democracy

We will now move on to explore the second form of democracy that is stipulated in the SQA course content. This second form of democracy is representative democracy. Watch the video lesson above, download the document attached to the top of this post and consider the key question shown below: 

This task links to the Course Assessment Specification (CAS): Democracy - arguments for and against direct democracy.

One of the most important skills in Higher Politics is the ability to compare and analyse ideas. With this in mind, we need to move towards comparing the two forms of democracy: direct and representative. We need to consider which form of democracy is superior and the reasons for this.  

The video lesson above offers an analysis of direct democracy.

You should watch the video and use the Comparative Analysis Grid (attached above) to help you to organise your ideas. 

This task links to the Course Assessment Specification (CAS): Democracy - arguments for and against representative democracy.

The video lesson above offers an analysis of representative democracy.

You should watch the video and use the Comparative Analysis Grid (attached above) to help you to organise your ideas.

You may wish to attempt the following quiz on democracy.

This task links to the Course Assessment Specification (CAS): Democracy - arguments for and against direct democracy, arguments for and against representative democracy and theorists.

Skills Link: drawing on factual and conceptual knowledge of political systems, comparing and contrasting different political systems, making generalisations, where appropriate, on the political process and researching, analysing, evaluating and synthesising information from a wide range of political sources.

At this point we have accumulated detailed notes about theorists and their views about democracy and have organised our ideas about the superiority of direct and representative democracy in terms of their practicality, accountability, ability to represent the people and allow participation in the political process.  

You should now look at your completed Comparative Analysis Grids and shade or highlight the areas that show superiority in terms of the four aspects discussed. So, if you believe that representative democracy is a superior form of democracy when it comes to practicality, you should highlight that box in the Grid. Doing this step will help you to see clearly which form of democracy is superior in relation to each aspect.

For specific guidance on the technique required for this examination skill, follow this link. 

You may upload your response to your student folder.

CAS Link: arguments for and against direct democracy, arguments for and against representative democracy.

Skills Link: comparing and contrasting different political systems, making generalisations, where appropriate, on the political process.

We are going to go through the 8 mark source question from the 2017 past paper.

The subject of this source question is democracy.

You can access the paper on pages 2 and 3 of the past paper, download it as a pdf above or view it below:

For specific guidance on how to answer this question, follow this link.

You may upload your response to your student folder.