Actual 2026 AQA A-level POLITICS 7152/2 Paper 2 Merged Question Paper + Mark Scheme

Actual 2026 AQA A-level POLITICS 7152/2 Paper 2 Merged Question Paper + Mark Scheme

Section A – US Government, Politics and Comparative Theory
Answer questions 1, 2 and 3.
0 1 Explain and analyse three factors that can influence the outcome of a presidential
election.
[9 marks]
0 2 Explain and analyse three functions of the US Congress.
[9 marks]
0 3 Explain and analyse three ways that structural theory could be used to study how civil
liberties and rights are protected in the US and the UK.
[9 marks]
3
IB/G/Jun24/7152/2
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Section B – Extract Question
Read the extracts below and answer question 4 that follows.
Do initiatives enhance US democracy?
Extract 1
Expanding direct democracy won’t make Americans feel better about politics
Recent polls show that Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with their system of
representative democracy. Some advocate for the greater use of direct democracy. Based on
15 years of our own research, we believe that the commonly held view that initiatives are good
for democracy is wrong.
Initiatives bypass the normal legislative process. They can be written by anyone and receive a
public vote without input from lawmakers, provided enough petition signatures are obtained to
get the initiative on the ballot.
Initiatives encourage voting based on fear without making people more generally knowledgeable
or engaged. Initiatives can also be a tool for ideological extremists and opportunists. This has
been the case with attempts to limit the rights of immigrants and curb affirmative action. The
frequent use of initiatives makes citizens trust government less, not more. This is because
initiative campaigns often stress that government is broken.
Extract taken from an article on the website of The Conversation, September 2019, by
Joshua J. Dyck and Edward L. Lascher Jr. The Conversation is an independent source of
news analysis and comment written by academic experts.
Extract 2
Republicans want to make it harder to pass initiatives – that should alarm us
On election day in 2018 and 2020, citizens voting in initiatives scored overwhelming victories for
popular proposals that had gone nowhere in state legislatures such as a higher minimum wage
in Florida and higher teacher salaries in Arizona.
Republican lawmakers in 24 states have introduced bills that would make it tougher for citizens
to push initiatives onto the ballot. The Republican bills tend to take two general approaches.
First, they increase the number of signatures necessary to qualify an initiative. Then, they
require majorities greater than 60% to pass.
President Theodore Roosevelt, who helped expand the use of initiatives at the beginning of the
last century, said: “I believe in the initiative and referendum, which should be used not to destroy
representative government, but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepresentative.”
Extract taken from The Guardian newspaper, published in March 2021, by David Daley,
senior fellow at FairVote. FairVote is a nonpartisan organisation that researches and supports
voting reforms.
0 4 Analyse, evaluate and compare the arguments in the above extracts for and against the
view that initiatives enhance US democracy.