Specification details, see
http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gce/gce08/gov/Pages/default.aspx
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Primary & caucus elections Propositions Partnership Invisible primaries National party conventions Presidential debates Congressional elections Mid-term elections
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Elections & Voting A knowledge of the electoral mechanisms used in the US system and their significance. Awareness of the factors that explain the outcomes of recent presidential elections, including voting behaviour and campaign finance.
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Elections & Voting is the first Unit 3 topic you will be doing with me as from September 2014. With this in mind ~ get reading!
Here's a couple of links that will get you going:
- 270towin is a link that I want you to be familiar with as it's something that we'll use at various stages of this topic to illustrate election outcomes in the USA. See: http://www.270towin.com/
- The Presidential primary Seasons for 2008 & 2012 are listed here (including the emerging calendar for 2016). This link provides an overview of the dates as well as an interesting insight into the issue of "front loading" in the nomination process (Something we'll be studying as part of this topic). See: frontloading.blogspot.co.uk/p/2016-presidential-primary-calendar.html
Similarly, this five minute footage gives a cogent overview into the election process for the US presidency.... Watch it! It's clearly made just before the 2012 race, but this does not detract from its usefulness for you as a contextual insight into a process we'll be studying and critically assessing:
Basic topic delivery derived from:
PRIMARY SEASON EXPLAINED: As promised, here's the link to that crazy-fast (but useful!) clip we looked at in class - I suggest you watch it a time or two in order to assimilate the process:
Here's a similar explanation of the Electoral College too: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_95I_1rZiIs Alternatively this is the version we used in class: