The Constitution

What The Constitution covers

Covers the rules that govern how the UK is governed: an uncodified and unentrenched constitution drawn from five sources, the reform programme begun in 1997, the devolution settlements and their consequences, and the arguments over codifying the whole thing.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The nature of the UK constitutionRecall questions on what makes the UK constitution uncodified, unentrenched and unitary, the twin pillars of parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law, and the documents from Magna Carta to the Parliament Acts.Open →
• The sources of the UK constitutionRecall questions on statute law, common law, conventions, authoritative works and treaties, and on why conventions are treated as a weakness.Open →
• How the constitution has changed since 1997Recall questions on Lords reform, the Human Rights Act, the Supreme Court, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act and the further devolution that followed 2014.Open →
• Devolution and its impact on the UKRecall questions on the powers of the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly, devolution in England, the West Lothian question and policy divergence.Open →
• Debates on further constitutional reformRecall questions on the case for and against a codified constitution, entrenchment and parliamentary sovereignty, the arguments over a British bill of rights, and further reform of the Lords, the Westminster voting system, the Human Rights Act and the Supreme Court.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take The Constitution further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Parliamentary sovereignty vs Popular sovereignty

  Parliamentary sovereignty: legislature possesses ultimate legal authority. Popular sovereignty: people constitute the ultimate political authority.

• Collective responsibility vs Individual responsibility

  Collective responsibility: ministers publicly support agreed government policy. Individual responsibility: a minister answers for personal conduct and department.

• Judicial review vs Appeal

  Judicial review: courts examine whether public bodies acted lawfully. Appeal: a higher court reconsiders a judicial decision.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is a constitution?

   Model answer

   A set of rules that establishes the institutions of the state, distributes power between them, and sets out the relationship between the state and its citizens.

2. 2

   What does it mean to say the UK constitution is uncodified?

   Model answer

   Its rules are not gathered into a single authoritative document. They are scattered across statutes, judicial decisions, unwritten conventions, scholarly commentary and treaties, so no one text can be pointed to as 'the constitution'.

3. 3

   What does it mean to say the UK constitution is unentrenched?

   Model answer

   Constitutional rules carry no special legal protection. Parliament can alter or repeal them by an ordinary Act passed on a simple majority, exactly as it would amend any other law.

4. 4

   Why is the UK described as a unitary state rather than a federal one?

   Model answer

   Ultimate legal authority is concentrated in one central body, Westminster, rather than divided between national and regional governments by a constitution. Devolved powers are granted by Act of Parliament and could in law be withdrawn the same way.

5. 5

   Some argue the UK has become 'quasi-federal'. What supports that description?

   Model answer

   Devolution has given Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland lasting law-making institutions with their own electoral mandates, and the Scotland Act 2016 and Wales Act 2017 declared those bodies permanent. In practice abolishing them would be politically unthinkable, even though it remains legally possible.

6. 6

   What are the 'twin pillars' on which the UK constitution rests?

   Model answer

   Parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

The Constitution revision questions

What does The Constitution cover in Edexcel A-Level Politics?

5 subtopics: the nature of the uk constitution, the sources of the uk constitution, how the constitution has changed since 1997, devolution and its impact on the uk and debates on further constitutional reform. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is The Constitution organised?

By the Edexcel 9PL0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.