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:
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Reading
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Writing
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Working with a partner and in as a group
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Investigating
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Recording
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Arguing
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Presenting
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Posters
“I will select ideas and relevant information independently and organise essential
information/ ideas in a logical order.” 3/4-26a
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“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
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“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
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“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:
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“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:
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“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
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Evaluates, compares and contrasts a range of evidence related to an issue and
uses it to come to a balanced view
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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
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Recognises the role of both the UK and the Scottish Parliament in helping to
meet the needs of Scotland’s citizens
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Recognises the existence and bias and exaggeration in the media and can
identify, with examples, evidence from relevant media sources
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Can explain why current events can lead to some aspects of a society changing
while other aspects stay the same
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Can analyse graphical sources to support conclusions
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Assesses the evidence developed in arguments about current affairs to develop
their own informed ideas
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Evaluates, compares and contrasts a range of evidence related to an issue and
uses it to come to a balanced view
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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 Policy they believe in
- Number of
MPs out of
650
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.
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).
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.
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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
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
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
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Use the following sources to make your own conclusion(s) on each.
Source 2 - Turnout in UK General Elections (the % of people
who can vote who do vote)
90%
85%
80%
75%
70%
65%
60%
55%
50%
1974
1979
1983
1987
1992
1997
2001
2005
2010
Voter turnout
Source 3: 2015 UK General election turnout by age
15
2015
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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3
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:
Option 1
Option 2
Introduce compulsory voting in
Do not introduce compulsory
the UK
voting in the UK
Source 1 – Background on compulsory voting
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
Brazil
Argentina
Germany
UK
USA
93%
82%
79%
72%
66%
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 nonvoters.’
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.
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