hey guys in this video the fantastic mr. t is when are we taking you through everything you need for your AQA GCSE citizenship paper one now this is quite a long video so you can jump in you can jump out a really good idea is to leave yourself a little time stamp down in the comments down below so that you can come back to the area that you left off before don't try and do this video all at once because it is quite long now to go with this video Oh from website there is the free revision checklist which you can download and as you're watching the video you can sit there with the checklist and take off the bits that you do know and identify there is that you're not so sure about also waiting for you over website for immediate download there is the workbook so you can try questions on areas that you're not too sure about hopefully improve your knowledge look at what sort of things the exam us are looking for and then try and improve your grades in the exams there are many opportunities for citizens to participate in democracy such as voting elections and referendums membership of political parties joining interest groups pressure groups and protest groups the use of social media and petitions and the magistracy and civil courts there are also barriers to the effective participation of citizens in democracy such as age many things require you to be 18 are over time and money limitations being a member of a political party an interest group or a pressure group can require a subscription which may not be affordable an extensive time involvement which may not be practical apathy and indifference not knowing or not caring what is happening misinformation and fake or bias news joining an interest group can have advantages and disadvantages the advantages are that you can get involved with a cost are you believe in you can meet your like-minded and sympathetic friends who share your values and you can further a cause and help to do good in your community the disadvantages are the echo-chamber phenomenon where large amounts of people in a group who all agree just read I'll see shudders views without ever challenging them you can open yourself up to online trolling and abuse and time and money commitments are required there are also advantages and disadvantages to joining a political party the advantages are that there is potential progression or a career you can influence policy and individuals and you can support a philosophy or individual that you agree with the disadvantages are the cost joining a political party requires a donation or subscription the effort and time required especially if you're involved in campaigning and the potential alienation that you may feel from friends or family similarly standing as a candidate for election has advantages and disadvantages the advantages are the raised profile and status and the ability to influence the debate and get your voice heard the disadvantages are the time effort and money commitment and the opening of yourself up for abuse and ridicule interest groups and pressure groups have several roles they campaign for or against a particular cause or policy they represent a specific group of people and they raise awareness of a problem or issue examples include Stonewall who campaign for lgbtq+ rights extinction rebellion who campaign on behalf of the environment and against climate change leave dot-eu who campaigned and continued to campaign for Bryn's exit from the European Union fathers for justice who campaign for the rights of estranged father's Britain first and English nationalist Association uncaged who campaign for the rights of retired greyhounds trade unions also have several roles they represent employees in the workplace of things like tribunals and formal meetings they campaign for employee rights within the industry they organize and vote on the appropriateness of industrial action such as strikes and they provide advice and guidance to their members examples include unison the PCs which is the Union for the civil service CWU the Communication Workers Union and National Union of Students charities and volunteer groups also have several roles they take practical action to relieve a problem they provide care people or services they will not for-profit shops and cafes and they campaign and fundraise around a particular issue examples include the RSPCA the RNLI mind a mental health charity Save the Children and Christian Aid and so we can look at examples of how citizens can work together to resolve particular issues extinction rebellion is an example of citizens working together to raise awareness of an issue through protest and civil disobedience the RSPCA is an example of citizens working together to take prompt collection to identify rescue and rehome animals in distress or maltreatment the Royal British Legion is an example of citizens working together to fundraise in this case for military veterans and Stonewall is an example of individuals working together to campaign for the rights of a particular group the media can also be used to bring about change to the use of social media where you can use campaigns events and means to make a point or op or followed an opinion traditional radio our TV reaches a larger and generally older audience newspapers and magazines reach a wide and targeted audience and traditional press releases and events can generate headlines and potentially controversy which can influence the news agenda there are many ways in which citizens can become involved in the legal system as a juror where they may decide on the innocence or guilt of defendants as a witness where they may give evidence or testimony in civil or criminal cases as a victim where they can report crimes to the police and give evidence as a magistrate where they may decide on the guilt in minor cases or carry out routine legal processes such as the awarding of bar licences as a special constable where they assist at regular police as backup where needed or as a police and crime Commissioner as an elected party political member of the public who when elected sets the priorities for local police during your study of GGC citizenship you will have looked at on taking a practical investigation and this is the process you should have followed firstly the forming of a a reasonable question secondly the forming of a hypothesis based on that question thirdly the planning of a method to carry out your investigation fourthly the carrying out of research on the question that you have formed fifthly analyzing the data and results you have collected and lastly evaluating the research as a whole there are several types of source we encounter when doing research primary sources come direct from the source secondary sources are written about a subject or after events textual sources are things like speeches articles and books statistical sources are data and numbers examples include the following a primary textual source might be a speech by a politician a secondary textual source may be articles and books written after an election about that election primary statistical data will be direct from the source such as government census data secondary statistical would be analysis of opinion polls in the newspaper so what makes a source reliable reliable sources should be free from bias they should use limited on though emotional or emotive language they should be factual at evidence-based you should expect to see listed references and sources for their information there should be clear authorship and you should be clear where the funding has come from and they should not be publicly editable by Wikipedia for example examples of sources are the following Wikipedia which is an unreliable source as it is publicly editable the BBC which is considered to be reliable as it has clear funding no bias and is factual census data is also reliable as is factual without bias has clear sources and funding the office for national statistics is also reliable it's factual it's not biased and it has clear sauce isn't funding social media is an unreliable source authors and funding are unclear and it is publicly editable tabloid newspapers are also unreliable they use emotive language and a biased so what is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory a hypothesis is an idea yet to be proven or disproven by investigation or evidence a theory is an explanation supported by the majority of evidence available when formulating a research question you should consider the following is it feasible can it actually be answered is it reasonable is the research to do it actually possible is it biased is it an inherently biased question is it new or has this research been done many times before and is it relevant is there a purpose to the research so let's look at some good and bad research questions good ones include the following the turnout generally increase or decrease from 1970 to 2019 that's a very much feasible reasonable research question the charissa may generally focus on brexit during her speeches made as Prime Minister is there a link between weather conditions and turnout during 20th century general elections to what extent did John Major referred to crime and punishment during speeches made as Prime Minister examples of boundary search questions include the following did household income influence voting behavior during elections in the 1920s data for that is all likely to be available did the anti-semitism of Jeremy Corbyn lose him the 2019 election that's an inherently biased question and how does Boris Johnson react to the use of Italian slang during interviews that's a question with questionable relevance when evaluating your research these are useful points to consider did you prove or disprove your hypothesis could you research be repeated could your sample size be larger were there problems with your process or method could you draw conclusions from your research and what further research could be done on the back of yours so let's look at the concept of democracy demos means people so democracy is government by the people in the UK we have a representative democracy in some other countries they have a more direct democracy such as Switzerland where many affairs are dealt with using referendums in some other countries they also have a presidential democracy such as the United States there are several core principles that underpin democracy these are human individual and civil rights responsibilities the rule of law and equality human individual and civil rights include things like the right to vote the right to free speech and the right to religious freedom responsibilities involve the responsibility to follow the laws but the rule of law is the idea that the law comes above all else an equality is the idea of each individual is inherently equal governments and cabinets have several powers they make policy decisions and set the general direction of government they write propose and attempt to pass legislation through Parliament they handle relations between the United Kingdom and other countries and they represent the United Kingdom on the world stage they also run individual government departments and handle events in crisis as the crop up the Prime Minister also has several additional powers they appoint cabinet and government ministers about 90 in total they set policy and legislation duration for the government they say overall direction and policy for the government they set the tone of what the government is doing they negotiate in concert with all the leaders they lead their particular political party they respond as the whole government does to crises and events as they occur and they can grant honors and patterns Parliament several roles mp's vote on the passing of legislation they also amend an update legislation and also look at it more thoroughly in select committees individual MPs also represent their constituencies and they generally hold the government to account the Civil Service is much overlooked but also our several roles they carry out routine administration and day-to-day matters such as the processing of passport applications they enact the decisions and policies made by ministers and they have various ministers based on their long experience the monarch also has several roles being a figurehead for the country meeting weekly with the prime minister and acting as an experienced adviser who has seen a great deal of events in the 20th century the judiciary by which we mean lawyers solicitors and judges also have several roles they interpret the laws passed by Parliament they decide on liability in civil cases and sentencing in criminal cases they interpret complex legal issues especially in the Supreme Court and judges set precedent by their decisions later judges will look at the decisions of earlier judges when weighing up a case when looking at the British Constitution it's important to remember that the UK has an uncodified or unwritten Constitution other countries such as the United States have a written constitution there are several sources for our Constitution the first is the relationships between different institutions how Parliament the cabinet the Prime Minister and the judiciary interact with each other existing law also known as precedent legislation passed by Parliament and tradition and history known as common law local government has several roles they are elected in local elections and deal with smaller issues in a specific local area such as waste collection roads parking social housing local government is funded but from central government grants and also through council tax devolved governments also have several roles they rule over a constituent nation of the United Kingdom examples such as the Scottish Parliament the Northern Ireland's Assembly and the Welsh Assembly they're elected by individuals in those nations and they have powers over most matters in that area education health care crime and punishment but some issues are reserved for the Westminster Government mostly Foreign Affairs and defence so who can stand for election in the UK well they must be over 18 years of age a British Irish or Commonwealth citizen they must only be nominated by a party or be an independent candidate they must not be in a disqualifying profession such as a judge police officer or bishop where they may have a conflict of interest between their profession and their responsibilities as an elected individual and there may not be otherwise disqualified such as by bankruptcy or criminal record so how are candidates to be an MP selected only one candidate per party can stand in each constituency larger parties generally carrier interviews to select candidate as there may be competition in each constituency existing MPs traditionally had two stands for their party by default the candidate receiving most votes in each constituency becomes that constituencies Member of Parliament but those receiving under 5% of the vote lose their 500 pound deposit pay to the Electoral Commission so who can vote in elections you must be 18 to vote a British Irish or Commonwealth citizen you must be registered to vote a process which takes about three minutes you must be resident at a UK address or be living abroad with British citizenship and you cannot have been legally excluded from voting for example by committing a serious criminal offence or electoral fraud a key question in this unit is should we reduce the voting age to 16 there are arguments for and against arguments far include that young people are affected by elections they pay some taxes and it won't encourage young people to be more interested and involved in politics and current affairs arguments against include the following there are many things which cannot be done at 16 young people have less life experience and do not always have the maturity to make an informed decision when voting voter turnout is the number of people who do vote in a constituency compared to all of those who can take an example in the skip to the ripken constituency of the 2019 general election 58,000 724 people of a possible 78734 0.6% which is quite high many factors affect turnout such as the whether turnout tends to be lower if the day's terrible the date of the election turnout is generally slightly lower in winter weather there are big issues on the day such as brexit voter apathy and levels of disengagement with politics the average age of the electorate in a constituency older people tend to be more likely to vote and how close the election is in a close election where it could go either way turnout tends to be higher taxes are raised and spent in several ways taxes are raised through national insurance income tax VAT corporation tax collectively these are known as general taxation fines and penalties such as speeding tickets and court fines raise revenue for the government and fails such as passport applications and driving licence applications they're spent in many ways the largest part of government spending is Social Security and Welfare which takes roughly a third full of a health education defense interest payments public order and safety and then others such as the environment and transport which collectively get to 24% there are two traditional views on taxation and spending the traditional right-wing view is that taxes and spending should both below people should keep more of their wages but public services should be more limited and people should be more self-reliant the traditional left-wing view is that taxes and spending should both be higher people should contribute more but public services should be better funded and more should be provided by the government in Britain we use the first past the post electoral system where the United Kingdom is divided into six hundred and fifty constituencies each of these has roughly 80,000 people each of these elects a single MP some of these are very small such as inner-city constituencies but some cover huge areas where population density is low such as the Highlands of Scotland there are things to consider when evaluating this system it does tend to result in strong and stable governments it's simple and relatively easy to understand and each member of parliament is linked to their constituents but there are disadvantages smaller parties a greatly disadvantaged elections can be won by way less than 50 percent of the vote millions of votes may be irrelevant if you're a Labour voter in a safe conservative constituency your vote counts for little an elections are decided by a small number of swing constituencies those marginals there are several turn ative to first-past-the-post in proportional representation the percentage of the Vosges equals your percentage of the seats in the alternative vote system each person chooses a primary and secondary choice the votes are then distributed accordingly in the list system candidates are ranked and votes are then distributed on the basis of these ranks there are three parts of government the executive the Prime Minister and the cabinet which takes action sets priorities and sets direction the legislature which is Parliament which votes on amends and scrutinizes legislation and the judiciary the courts which interprets law passes judgments and sets precedent Parliament is composed of two houses making it bicameral the lower house is the elected House of Commons and the upper house is the appointed House of Lords thous of Commons debates construction and votes on legislation the house of laws reviews and amends this legislation is necessary the Conservative Party is a party of the right-wing its traditional color is blue and it's been in government through most of the latter half of the 20th century traditionally it's been the party of the more well-off business the self-employed and agriculture the Liberal Democrats is usually regarded as a party of the center its traditional clothes orange it was in coalition government from 2010 to 2015 and has traditionally been the party of students teachers academics and the higher educated the Labour Party is traditionally a party of the left-wing using the color red in government through parts of the latter half of the 20th century and has traditionally been thought of as the party of workers to work in class trade unions and the lower paid there are numerous other smaller parties such as the Green Party focused on the environment and tolerance you keep in the brexit party both focused on the exit of the United Kingdom from European Union the SNP or Scottish National Party focused on Scottish interests and independence implied kinery FACA ston welsh interests there are several key people within the House of Commons the speaker and several deputy speakers who manage debates and votes and he's sure the rules are followed the black rod responsible for security within parliament whisps who are tasked with ensuring members of parliament votes as their party wishes them to Emma from benches members of whom speak for their party on specific issues governments are usually formed by whoever can command the majority in parliament normally this is the leader of the largest party if they have more MPs than all of the other parties combined this is an overall majority if not they can form a minority or coalition government in considering how other countries govern themselves we need to look at both democratic and non-democratic States examples of democratic states include representative democracies such as India Australia or Iceland direct democracies such as Switzerland presidential democracies such as the United States or France and federal democracies such as Germany or Brazil non democratic states include theocracies religious government such as Iran or Yemen single party communist states such as China or Cuba absolute monarchies such as Saudi Arabia or Brunei and traditional dictatorships such as current Russia or Turkmenistan [Music]