...Examiners’ report 2011 Examiners’ report 2011 265 0020 Public law – Zone A Introduction As in previous years, the quality of papers ranged from First Class to poor Fails. In this report the Examiners will discuss what constitutes a „good‟ answer and what does not. Extracts from candidates‟ examination scripts are included in relation to Questions 1 and 4, both of which were statistically popular with candidates. Please note that spelling errors and other linguistic problems have been left as they were on the examination script. General remarks As in previous years, irrespective of the actual questions on the examination paper, there are a number of common problems which detract from the quality of the answers given. The first relates to understanding and correctly interpreting the question. Although a number of the same topics will appear on the paper each year, candidates must appreciate that this does not mean that there is a standard answer which will be adequate for the particular question. It is extremely important that you take care in interpreting what the actual question is asking, and adapt your knowledge of the topic accordingly. The Examiners can spot a „rote-learned‟ preprepared answer and it is rarely adequate for more than a bare pass, if that. A related issue concerns relevance. One of the main purposes of the 15-minute reading time is to enable candidates to read and reflect on what the questions require, and a correct interpretation is crucial for success...
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...Section A and 40 minutes on Section B SECTION A QUESTION ONE PRIME MINISTERIAL POWER “For too long the big political decisions in this country have been made in the wrong place. They are not made around the Cabinet table where they should be, but they are taken on the sofa in Tony Blair’s office. No notes are kept and no one takes the blame when things go wrong. That arrogant style of government must come to an end. I will restore the proper process of government. I want to be Prime Minister of this country not a President (Source: David Cameron, The Times, 5th October 2006) “The Cabinet is the committee at the centre of the British political system. Every Thursday during Parliament, Secretaries of State from all departments as well as other ministers meet in the Cabinet Room in Downing Street to discuss the big issues of the day. The Prime Minister chairs the meeting, selects its members and also recommends their appointment as ministers to the monarch. The present Cabinet has 23 members (21 MPs and two peers). The secretary of the Cabinet is responsible for preparing records of its discussions and decisions”. (Source: From a modern textbook) (a) What criticism is David Cameron making of Tony Blair’s style of decision making in source 1? [5] (b) Explain the main functions of the cabinet [10] (c) To what extent have UK Prime Ministers become “presidential”? [25] Or 2 QUESTION TWO THE JUDICIARY A powerful coalition of judges, senior lawyers and politicians...
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...Summary : I. The United Kingdom 1. The Make-Up of the UK 2. Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy 3. The Electoral System and Political Parties in the UK 4. The Current Political Situation 5. Devolved Administration in the UK II. The United States of America 1. The Make-Up of the USA 2. The Federal and Constitutional Republic of the USA 3. Political Parties in the USA 4. The Current Political Situation in the USA I. The United Kingdom 1. The Make-Up of the UK The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy and unitary state. It is made up of four individual countries, which are England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is governed by a parliamentary system and its seat of government is in London. There are also three devolved powers outside of the capital, located in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh (the three capital cities of Ireland, Wales and Scotland respectively). There are also a number of islands that are constitutionally tied to the United Kingdom constitution, but that are not part of the UK. They are the bailiwicks (headed by a bailiff, appointed by the crown to administer) of Jersey and Guernsey (to the south of the UK) and also the Isle of Man, which is off the north-east coast of the British mainland. However, it is true to say that the majority of British might even get confused as to the difference between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the British Isles...
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...Edexcel AS Politics Edexcel AS Politics ExamBuster 2009 Introduction to Unit 1- People and Politics Understanding the Examination and Exam Technique Choosing your questions In this unit you are presented with four questions. They are of equal value and each question covers one of the four sections of the specification. These are: Democracy and political participation Party policies and ideas Elections Pressure groups There is no significance to the order in which questions appear. Each question is divided into three sections (a), (b) and (c). When choosing which questions to do, the following principles are recommended: It is almost certain that you will be better off choosing your strongest question to do first. You should choose questions on the basis of how well you can answer the section (c) part. The (c) part carries 25 of the 40 marks available for the whole answer. Do not choose a question simply because you can do part (a) especially well. The (a) question is only worth 5 marks. It would be illogical to choose your strongest (a) part if you cannot do well on section (c). If you cannot decide between several (c) parts, i.e. you can do more than one equally well, make your choice on the basis of part (b) which carries 10 marks. But remember, it is the (c) parts that will determine most what your overall mark will be. So, when you first look at the exam paper, look at the (c) sections first. Assessment Objectives Each question is divided into three sections,...
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...Selection whose 7 out 9 members are ships. On the other hand, there are 11 members in the SCs and to eliminate “the conflict of interest, all the members are backbench members who are elected using the Alternative vote system. 2a What are the main functions of Parliament and how well does it perform them? [5] < This question is a 20-mark question > 3a What are the differences between direct and representative democracy? [5] In direct democracy, people are directly involved in decision-making processes, whereas in representative democracy, people elect MPs who will represent and form a government in Parliament. For instance, some qualified members of Athenian society were involved in decision-making and a referendum is a limited form of direct democracy. Also general elections are kind of parliamentary democracy, they are held every five years to election a representative and a government. There is potential danger that decision-making mechanisms can be affected by an organised faction and demagogue in direct democracy. 4a What is the role of the opposition in British politics? [5] The main role of the opposition is adversarial. The Opposition is not...
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...background of this research. Chapter two will begin by reviewing available literature on studies done on the topic. This chapter will provide a substantially better insight into the dimensions and complexity of the problem and how others have contributed to the topic. A variety of sources will be used to review literature, including research reports, dissertations, government publications and theses; accessed through journals, textbooks and internet. The chapter will end by giving an overview of approaches that paves the way for a clearer understanding of the research problem and identifies the knowledge gap this study seeks to fill. Women in Development (WID), Women and Development (WAD) and Gender and Development (GAD) approach will be discussed in relation to women access to land in Zimbabwe. 2.2. Customary law and land question For many people, customary law is the most important law in their lives, controlling areas of their lives like their marriages, their property, and their right to inherit. Due to customary law in Zimbabwe like in many other African countries with patriarchal systems, women can only access land through marriage or other male relatives. According to Ghosh (2010) customary law refers to African traditions which have become an intrinsic part of the accepted and expected conduct in Zimbabwean black communities. This law defines roles which women should play in society as well as what kind of businesses or economic activities they should venture into. Customary...
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...only western democracy without a federal bill of rights. The debate regarding the need for a bill of rights necessitates an understanding of what human rights the people of Australia already enjoy. If sufficient protection can be found in existing sources, does Australia really need a federal bill of rights? Opponents of a bill of rights state that we have sufficient protection from arbitrary government intervention in our personal affairs and thus a bill of rights is unnecessary. There are a number of potential sources of human rights in Australia that might provide the suggested existing protection, including the common law, specific domestic legislation, international law and constitutional law. Each of these sources of human rights has, however, important limitations. The focus of this article is on the inadequacy of the Australian constitutions as a source of purported protection. This in turn suggests that an alternative source of rights is needed – a federal bill of rights? In the course of this analysis the author makes suggestions for reform; specifically how a federal bill of rights may address the paucity of constitutional protection. I INTRODUCTION Unlike the constitutions of many nations, such as the United States of America and the Republic of South Africa, the constitutions of the Australian States and Territories and the Commonwealth Constitution Act 1901 (UK) * Associate Professor, School of Law, Deakin University, Australia. 132 D EAKIN LAW REVIEW...
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...political power and religious identities, economic transformations, and social and cultural change are studied in the period from 1757 to 2007. In normal circumstances students will be given 6 supervisions in groups of 1 or 2. Key themes and brief overview: The paper begins by examining the rise of British power in the context of economic developments indigenous to southern Asia; it analyses the role played by Indian polities and social groups in the expansion of the East India Company's activities. It tracks the emergence of modern intelligentsias and their definitions of what constituted proper religious, public and domestic behaviour. The paper places these changes in the context of the concurrent decline of Indian handicrafts and the impact of British revenue arrangements on rural society, and explores India's place in the...
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...EFFECTIVENESS TRANSPARENCY ACCOUNTABILITY EFFICIENCY INDEPENDENCE 11 11 33 34 37 40 8 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 INTERGOVERNMENTAL FISCAL ARRANGEMENTS REVENUE RAISING SPENDING FISCAL EQUALISATION MONITORING POLICY 43 43 51 55 56 57 9 CONCLUSION 59 INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS IN FEDERAL SYSTEMS INTRODUCTION 1| INTRODUCTION Australia, like many other systems of government around the world, is a federal system. Federations, while divided into different levels of government inevitably have a degree of interdependency between governments. Inescapably there arises a degree of conflict or ineffective governance. For example, disputes may arise between different governments on the basis of service provision or infrastructure, constitutional jurisdiction, fiscal arrangements (e.g. vertical fiscal imbalance or spending powers) or environmental or social issues. Most federations have developed a system of intergovernmental consultation and cooperation to deal with such issues, and to manage and foster cooperation between governments. The character of intergovernmental arrangements is unique to each federation, and depends on various factors such as history, geography, population, size and formal federal arrangements. While intergovernmental processes and arrangements are a common feature of federations around the world,...
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...China The first one is the economy. China's economy has been typically the best-performing economy or among the best-performing economies in the world since 1979 when reforms began, averaging about 7 percent growth. One note of concern, though, is that those conditions that allowed that 7 percent growth are not likely to be prevalent in the years to come, because for over 30 years, China has relied extensively on lower wage rates and export-driven growth. But wage rates have been bid up, as happens; the Chinese are victims of their own success, you could say. And secondly, the rest of the countries in the world are not going through high rates of growth, and they’re not going to be importing the way they had been historically. So, that formula isn’t going to be as successful going forward as it has been. China needs to shift away from an export-driven economy to more of a consumption model. It needs to be mindful about funding its state-owned enterprises, about subsidizing state-owned companies. It needs to lessen its reliance on low-end manufacturing and move up the value chain. By the way, these aren’t my observations; these are observations by Chinese leadership. If you follow any Chinese leader’s speech on China’s economic transformation, these are the points he’ll make. We would call that market rationalism or just normal evolution as a country rises to middle-income status. But there are also some countervailing impulses. There’s a strong streak of economic nationalism;...
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...Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 16, Number 3—Summer 2002—Pages 67– 88 Economic Reforms in India Since 1991: Has Gradualism Worked? Montek S. Ahluwalia I ndia was a latecomer to economic reforms, embarking on the process in earnest only in 1991, in the wake of an exceptionally severe balance of payments crisis. The need for a policy shift had become evident much earlier, as many countries in east Asia achieved high growth and poverty reduction through policies that emphasized greater export orientation and encouragement of the private sector. India took some steps in this direction in the 1980s, but it was not until 1991 that the government signaled a systemic shift to a more open economy with greater reliance upon market forces, a larger role for the private sector including foreign investment, and a restructuring of the role of government. India’s economic performance in the postreform period has many positive features. The average growth rate in the ten-year period from 1992–1993 to 2001–2002 was around 6.0 percent, as shown in Table 1, which puts India among the fastest growing developing countries in the 1990s. This growth record is only slightly better than the annual average of 5.7 percent in the 1980s, but it can be argued that the 1980s growth was unsustainable, fuelled by a buildup of external debt that culminated in the crisis of 1991. In sharp contrast, growth in the 1990s was accompanied by remarkable external stability despite the east Asian crisis...
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...conference on “American Economic Policy in the 1990s” held June 27 to 30, 2001 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by any of the institutions with which they are affiliated. We thank Al Davis, Peter Diamond, Edward Gramlich, Peter Orszag, Gene Sperling, and Lawrence Summers for comments on an earlier draft. Elmendorf was formerly Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Office of Economic Policy, and prior to that Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers; Liebman was formerly Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council; and Wilcox was formerly Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. Table of Contents Page 1. Introduction 2. Budget Outcomes and Projections Improved Budget Picture Sources of Improvement 3. Budget Deficit Reduction: 1990 through 1997 OBRA90 OBRA93 What Did Deficit Reduction Ultimately Accomplish? The Republican-Controlled Congress BBA97 4. Entitlement Reform and Saving Social Security First Entitlement Commissions Social Security Saving Social Security First 5. Social Security Reform Options Using Projected Budget Surpluses as Part of Social Security Reform Investments in Private Financial Assets Potential Compromise Reform Proposals The 1999 State of the Union Social Security Proposal 6. Budget Surpluses: 1998 through 2000 The 1999 State of the Union Budget Framework...
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...DECENTRALIZATION, GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICES THE IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Omar Azfar, Satu Kähkönen, Anthony Lanyi, Patrick Meagher, and Diana Rutherford IRIS Center, University of Maryland, College Park September 1999 Table of Contents 1 2 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................1 IMPACT OF DECENTRALIZATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES: THEORY AND EVIDENCE ............................................................................................2 2.1 Theory.............................................................................................................................................. 2 2.1.a Allocative Efficiency............................................................................................................... 2 2.1.b Accountability ......................................................................................................................... 3 2.1.c Cost Recovery ......................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Evidence........................................................................................................................................... 3 3 FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PERFORMANCE OF DECENTRALIZED SERVICE PROVISION...................................................................................5 3.1 The Political Framework..........
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...Special articles Power Politics Process of Power Sector Reform in India Power sector policy in India appears to have locked itself into adverse arrangements at least twice in the recent period. The first was when agricultural consumption was de-metered and extensive subsidies were offered; the second when Independent Power Producer contracts with major fiscal implications were signed by the State Electricity Boards. A third set of circumstances, with the potential for equally powerful forms of institutional lock-in, appears to be in the making with the reproduction of the Orissa model on the national scale. This paper provides an analysis of the social and political context in which power sector reforms have taken place in India. While a state-led power sector has been responsible for substantial failures, is the design of the reformed sector well aimed at balancing efficiency and profit-making on the one hand and the public interest on the other? The discussion of the forces and actors that have shaped the reform processes is intended to contribute to an understanding of how the public interest can best be served in the ongoing effort to reshape the power sector. NAVROZ K DUBASH, SUDHIR CHELLA RAJAN I Introduction he electric power sector in India is in a state of upheaval. Over the decade of the 1990s, the long-held belief in public ownership and operation of this critical sector has been eroded. In its place has emerged a growing vision of the sector organised around...
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...Economic Reforms in India since 1991: Has Gradualism Worked? by Montek S. Ahluwalia* India was a latecomer to economic reforms, embarking on the process in earnest only in 1991, in the wake of an exceptionally severe balance of payments crisis. The need for a policy shift had become evident much earlier, as many countries in east Asia achieved high growth and poverty reduction through policies which emphasized greater export orientation and encouragement of the private sector. India took some steps in this direction in the 1980s, but it was not until 1991 that the government signaled a systemic shift to a more open economy with greater reliance upon market forces, a larger role for the private sector including foreign investment, and a restructuring of the role of government. India’s economic performance in the post-reforms period has many positive features. The average growth rate in the ten year period from 1992-93 to 2001-02 was around 6.0 percent, as shown in Table 1, which puts India among the fastest growing developing countries in the 1990s. This growth record is only slightly better than the annual average of 5.7 percent in the 1980s, but it can be argued that the 1980s growth was unsustainable, fuelled by a buildup of external debt which culminated in the crisis of 1991. In sharp contrast, growth in the 1990s was accompanied by remarkable external stability despite the east Asian crisis. Poverty also declined significantly in the post-reform period, and at a...
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