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S1 Modern Studies

Humanities

Cathkin High school

Living in a Democracy

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Skills

Learning about living in a democracy, will develop skills for Learning, Life and Work.

You will develop key Literacy skills by engage in a variety of different activities:

• Reading

• Writing

• Working with a partner and in as a group

• Investigating

• Recording

• Arguing

• Presenting

• Posters

• “I will select ideas and relevant information independently and organise essential

information/ ideas in a logical order.” 3/4-26a

• “I will accurately spell most of the words I need to use. I will accurately

punctuate and structure different types of sentences and arrange these to

make meaning clear.” 3/4-21 & 22a

• “I will engage and contribute with others during class/group discussions and

encourage others to contribute. I understand that they may have different

opinions to mine, but that I can use their contribution to reflect, clarify or

change my opinion.” 3-02a

• “I will use notes to generate and develop ideas, retain and recall information,

explore problems, make decisions, generate and develop ideas or create original

text. I understand when it is appropriate to quote from sources and when I

should put points into my own words. I can acknowledge my sources

appropriately.” 3-25a

You will also develop your Numeracy skills:

• “I can evaluate and interpret raw and graphical data using a variety of methods,

comment on relationships I observe within the data and communicate my

findings to others.” 4-20a

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You will also develop your Health and Wellbeing:

• “I will make full use of and value the opportunities I am given to improve and

manage my learning and, in turn, I can help to encourage learning and confidence

in others.” 3/4-11a

You will also develop specific skills that are required to be successful in Modern

Studies:

Modern Studies significant aspects of learning

• Evaluates, compares and contrasts a range of evidence related to an issue and

uses it to come to a balanced view

• Recognises their own rights, responsibilities and can describe the ways in which

citizens can participate in politics and the ways in which political decisions are

made in Scotland and the UK

• Recognises the role of both the UK and the Scottish Parliament in helping to

meet the needs of Scotland’s citizens

• Recognises the existence and bias and exaggeration in the media and can

identify, with examples, evidence from relevant media sources

• Can explain why current events can lead to some aspects of a society changing

while other aspects stay the same

• Can analyse graphical sources to support conclusions

• Assesses the evidence developed in arguments about current affairs to develop

their own informed ideas

• Evaluates, compares and contrasts a range of evidence related to an issue and

uses it to come to a balanced view

• Considers a range of arguments and points of view to develop their own balanced

view of a social, political or ecconomic issue

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Who makes decisions for Britain?

I will:

Describe the different ways decisions can be made

The

Queen? The Government? The Police? The Army? The People? In your pairs discuss who you think is in charge of Britain. Write this down

in your jotter and give a reason for your answer.

How are decisions made?

Imagine you and 4 friends are going to the cinema. There are 2 different films

to choose from.

1. How do you decide which film to watch?

2. What are the different ways a decision could be made?

3. Democracy means we accept the majority should get their way, even if we

don’t personally agree with them. What do the class’s answers to question

2 tell us about how naturally democratic we are?

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Representative democracy

I will:

Describe my place on the political spectrum and be able to explain what this

means.

Explain how I am represented and where I am represented.

Explain some beliefs held by the main political parties in the UK.

Democracy means people getting a say in decisions that affect them. Decisions are usually

made by votes in Parliaments. However, all the people of a country cannot all directly be

in a Parliament at the one time having their say. For one thing there are too many of us –

5 million people in Scotland and 60 million in Britain – how could we all get a chance to put

across our views or even fit in the room?! Votes would take far too long if everyone was

directly consulted on every single law getting passed all the time. Also, we may not all

have the knowledge and experience to make sensible judgments on the many, often

complicated things to be decided, and even if we did, we may not have the time or even

want to constantly have to decide on the laws.

But we still need to have a say, so instead of making decisions directly, we choose a

smaller group of people to do it for us. These people are called representatives. People

who put themselves forward to be a representative are called candidates. They usually

belong to a political party such as the Conservatives, Labour, the SNP, Liberal Democrats,

Green Party or UKIP. Political parties are groups of people who broadly share an idea of

how the country should be governed. They let us know what they believe in by campaigning

before an election. Campaigning involves knocking on people’s doors and speaking with

voters, delivering leaflets to people’s houses, putting up posters advertising what the

party stand for and making short TV adverts

promoting the party. Voters can then make

their own decision on who to vote for.

We vote for the representatives we want at

election time to make decisions on our

behalf. This means we live in a

representative democracy, as we decide the

people who make the decisions, and if we

don’t like the decisions they make, we can replace them at the next election.

Take the Political Spectrum quiz to find out your political views!

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There are different types of representative who make decisions in different

Parliaments. Each Parliament is in charge of different things:

1. Councillors who make local decisions as part of a council.

Councils are in charge of local things like building and providing staff and resources in

schools, providing leisure centres, cutting grass in parks, fixing potholes on roads, and

deciding how often to take the bins out.

2. Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs)

The Scottish Parliament is in charge of areas that are known as devolved powers:

Education (school curriculum, exams, college and universities) Health, Housing and

Transport, for Scotland only.

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3. Members of the UK Parliament (MPs)

The UK Parliament is in charge of areas that are known as reserved powers: how much

tax we pay, setting the minimum wage, benefits, whether or not to go to war with other

countries, and whether or not the UK should have nuclear weapons.

4. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

The European Parliament is in charge of things like immigration laws into European

countries, advertising laws, farming and fishing.

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Task

For each of the following issues, which of your representatives would you speak

to in order to meet your needs – Councillor, MSP, MP or MEP?

1. You are unhappy that the British Army is bombing Syria.

2. You are concerned that there are too many immigrants from Europe entering

Britain.

3. You don’t think you are being paid enough in your job and think the Minimum

Wage should be raised to £10 an hour.

4. You feel there are too many pupils in your school and not enough teachers.

5. You want to know how much you will have to pay for college when you leave

school.

6. You are annoyed at the state of the roads around your street and want to ask

for them to be repaired.

7. You feel there should be a more regular rail service connecting Cambuslang to

Glasgow.

8. You become unemployed and want information on how to receive unemployment

benefit to help pay the bills while you look for another job.

9. You are unhappy with how long you have to wait for an operation on the NHS.

10. You don’t think there is enough to do in your area and would like there to be a

gym or sports centre or youth club.

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Task

Use computers to find out the missing information and complete the table:

Party Leader Scottish

Parliament -

Number of

MSPs out of 129

UK Parliament

- Number of

MPs out of

650

Policy they believe in

Conservatives

Labour

SNP

Liberal

Democrats

Greens

UKIP

Homework: find out who your MSP and MP is, and which party they are in.

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What makes a good representative?

I will

Be able to describe the characteristics of a good representative

TASK

Make up a profile of someone who you think would make a good representative.

Think about: - What qualities they would have that would make them appeal to you and

others. For each quality you would like your representatives to have, state why you think

this is important. Try to provide between 5 and 15 personal qualities / skills.

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Participation in Democracy

I will

Explain the various ways people can participate in democracy in the UK

There are a number of ways people can practise democracy / citizenship and

participate in politics:

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Using the above pictures to help, explain the different ways people can participate in

democracy. Use the Point, Explain, Example paragraph structure to help: Try to write

between 2 and 4 paragraphs like the one below.

Homework: Choose an existing petition from the following website:

Note down what it is about, how many signatures it has, and your opinions on it.

One way people can participate in politics is by _________________ (POINT).

This means _________________________________, this could be a good way

to participate as _______________________________________ (EXPLAIN).

For example, __________________________________________ (EXAMPLE).

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Skills: 1. Conclusions

I will

Be able to draw conclusions by analysing graphical sources

Making conclusions using sources of information is a key Modern Studies skill. A

conclusion is a summing up of source information into one overall, general, accurate

comment which could be backed up by the evidence in the source.

Below is an example of a source:

Source 1: Electoral map of how Britain voted in the 2015 UK election

If you were asked to make a conclusion on the results of the 2015 UK General election

using the above source, there are several possible correct conclusions:

The Conservatives were the most popular party in the election.

The Conservatives won most of their support in England

The SNP were the most popular party in Scotland

Different regions of the UK tend to vote differently

In total, there are 650

constituencies (voting areas) in

UK elections. Each constituency

elects 1 MP to represent them in

the UK Parliament. 59 of these

constituencies are in Scotland.

Blue = Conservative seats Red = Labour seats Yellow = SNP seats Orange = Liberal Democrat seats

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Use the following sources to make your own conclusion(s) on each.

Source 3: 2015 UK General election turnout by age

50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

1974 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015

Source 2 - Turnout in UK General Elections (the % of people who can vote who do vote)

Voter turnout

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Source 4: Women in politics

Source 5: Voter satisfaction at performance of Scottish Government in

selected areas:

Source 2: A conclusion is…….

Source 3: A conclusion is…….

Source 4: A conclusion is…….

Source 5: A conclusion is…….

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Skills: 2. Identifying bias / exaggeration

I will:

Be able to identify bias / exaggeration in newspapers

Bias means one sided and unbalanced. Newspapers in Britain are allowed to be biased to

shape the opinions of their readers. This means they can openly hold one sided opinions

and urge their readers to agree with them, and they can print that people either should

or should not vote for certain politicians or political parties.

Bias can be either for or against something. A good way of spotting bias is looking for

exaggeration in newspapers – where facts are twisted, the truth is stretched and

people’s quotes are taken out of context to suit the way the paper wants to tell the

story. Newspapers do not have to be biased, but they can be and many are.

TV news on the other hand, is not allowed to be biased. This includes the BBC. They

have to report news in a balanced way, giving different arguments in a debate or

allowing different groups to have their say on the programme. There is lots of bias on

the internet too, but by law the BBC website is not allowed to be biased.

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Identifying bias

Look at the following 3 news articles reporting how the government is dealing with

healthcare and answer the question that follows.

1

2

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Task

Complete the following sentences:

1. Article 1 is biased / not biased. I know this because ………

2. Article 2 is biased / not biased. I know this because………

3. Article 3 is biased / not biased. I know this because………

Try to provide between 1 and 3 pieces of evidence for each article

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Skills: 3. Making and justifying decisions

I will:

Be able to make a decision using sources of information

Be able to justify this decision with source evidence

You will often be asked to make and justify decisions in Modern Studies, using sources

of information. There is never a right or wrong answer, but you must back up your decision

with evidence from the sources that supports your decision. Be careful though, because

not all evidence in the source will support your decision! Attempt the following options

question using the information in the sources.

You have been asked to decide whether or not the UK should introduce compulsory voting

(meaning you would have to vote in elections or else you are fined). You have 2 options:

Source 1 – Background on compulsory voting

Option 1

Introduce compulsory voting in

the UK

Option 2

Do not introduce compulsory

voting in the UK

Many countries do not have compulsory voting, such as the USA and

Germany. Currently we do not have compulsory voting in the UK, but they do

in some countries such as Australia, Argentina and Brazil.

Some people think compulsory voting encourages people to vote who

otherwise might not voter, so it is good for democracy. Voter turnout in

countries with compulsory voting is usually higher than those without

compulsory voting. In Australia, for example, you are fined $20 if you do not

vote and cannot provide a valid reason why not (such as illness or family

emergency) and the majority of Australians agree with this law.

However, opponents of compulsory voting argue that it is undemocratic to

force people to vote as it should be people’s own right not to choose not to

vote if they don’t want to. If people are not interested in politics, then

making them vote could mean they make bad choices resulting in a bad

government. Although the majority of Australians are in favour of it, 37% of

them think being fined for not voting is unfair.

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Source 2: UK opinion poll on compulsory voting

Source 3: Voter turnout in selected countries

Country Turnout at most recent election Australia 93%

Brazil 82%

Argentina 79%

Germany 72%

UK 66%

USA 55%

Source 4: Views on an internet forum

‘With compulsory voting there is no excuse not to vote as you can simply vote for ‘none of the above

parties’ even if you don’t agree with any of them – this proves you’re not just lazy.’ Gary, Glasgow

‘Some people find it difficult to get to the polling station if they don’t have a car, for example. They

should not be punished with a fine because they find it difficult to vote’ Stan, Cambuslang

‘The solution to people not voting is to offer them candidates, parties and policies they feel are

worth voting for, not forcing them to vote for ones they do not feel offer anything.’ Ann, London

‘Compulsory voting will just make people who dislike politics dislike it even more than they already

do. Non-voters are not to blame, politics is to blame, and politics should be fixed, not the non-

voters.’ Nicola, Dundee

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Use the following template to help you answer, filling in the red with source evidence:

I choose Option _____, to _______________________________.

I chose this option as Source ____ says “evidence that backs up your option”, which is

backed up by Source ____, which shows that ‘more evidence to back up your Option’.

I chose this option as Source ____ says “evidence that backs up your option”, which is

backed up by Source ____, which shows that ‘more evidence to back up your Option’.

I chose this option as Source ____ says “evidence that backs up your option”, which is

backed up by Source ____, which shows that ‘more evidence to back up your Option’.

Try to provide between 2 and 6 pieces of evidence in favour of your option.

Mock Election

Over the next few periods we will be having a mock election.

You will be split into groups and allocated a political party.

Using the information about the party you will create a campaign to encourage

the rest of the class to vote for your party.

This should include a poster, speech, rosettes and a leaflet and you will take

on the related roles to produce these.

After everyone has presented there will be a vote and a winning party.