How does the UK political system compare to other systems?
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe the political system of the UK and compare it with other systems around the world.
Key learning points
- The UK is a representative democracy.
- Democracies give citizens many freedoms, which have often developed over many years.
- The government is made of three parts: Parliament (legislative), government (executive) and judiciary (judicial).
- The main categories of political systems are: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime.
Keywords
Government - the group of people with the authority to govern a country; in the UK, the Government is chosen and led by the Prime Minister (PM)
Democracy - a system of government in which citizens vote in regular, fair elections for representatives who then make laws and decisions on their behalf
Common misconception
Democracy exists in all countries, just in different ways.
Democracy exists in many countries and the levels of it vary. However, in many countries, there is a large mix of democratic and non-democratic practices, and in others, there is no true democracy at all, with the government taking full control.
Teacher tip
Looking at the Economic Democracy Index may give pupils a good understanding of the prominence of different political systems across the world, as well as the changes in countries' classifications over time. This information can be downloaded/viewed directly from Economist Intelligence Unit website.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Match the word to its correct definition.
a group of people who run a country and make important decisions
a system where people vote to choose their leaders
a person who legally belongs to a country
Q2.In a democracy, people vote in regular, free and elections to choose their leaders.
Q3.What is not the name of a branch of the UK Government?
Q4.What is a key feature of a democracy?
Q5.Rearrange the words into the correct order to make a sentence about governments.
Q6.Who is responsible for leading the Government in the UK?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.The UK is a represenative meaning that citizens vote for representatives to make decisions on their behalf.
Q2.In a full democracy, citizens have many , including free elections, freedom of speech and a fair legal system.
Q3.The UK Government is made of three parts: Parliament (legislative), government (executive) and judiciary (judicial). This is referred to as the of powers.
Q4.Does democracy exist in all countries, just in different ways?
Q5.Order the political systems from the largest amount of political and citizen freedom to the lowest.
Q6.Match each political system to its description.
fair elections and strong freedoms, overall trust in government
few freedoms; unfair or absent elections; government has full control
elections happen, but government may limit freedoms/control media
fair elections, but possible issues like low trust in government
To help you plan your 9 citizenship lesson on: How does the UK political system compare to other systems?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 9 citizenship lesson on: How does the UK political system compare to other systems?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 citizenship lessons from the How is the UK governed? unit, dive into the full secondary citizenship curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.