Edexcel A-Level Politics | Paper 2 | 2027 Predicted Paper | Question 7(a) Mark Scheme
Question 7 Mark Scheme: Nationalism
Question 7 is a 24-mark Political Ideas essay, worth 8 marks each for AO1, AO2 and AO3. The command phrase “To what extent” requires students to identify and compare areas of agreement and disagreement within nationalism, use the prescribed thinkers to support those comparisons, and reach a sustained judgement about the extent of unity.
Pearson requires candidates to consider both sides of the debate and refer to specific thinkers from the relevant specification section. If either requirement is absent, the response cannot progress beyond Level 2. The current specification requires students to study liberal, conservative, anti/post-colonial and expansionist nationalism, together with Rousseau, Herder, Mazzini, Maurras and Garvey. It explicitly includes nations, self-determination, the nation-state, culturalism, racialism and internationalism.
Levels of response
Level | Marks | Characteristics |
Level 1 | 1–4 | Superficial knowledge, limited comparison, largely descriptive arguments and unsupported conclusions. |
Level 2 | 5–9 | Some accurate knowledge and emerging comparison, but analysis and evaluation are uneven or only partly developed. |
Level 3 | 10–14 | Mostly accurate knowledge, generally focused comparative analysis and some substantiated judgements. |
Level 4 | 15–19 | Accurate, carefully selected knowledge, consistent comparative analysis and mostly substantiated evaluation. |
Level 5 | 20–24 | Thorough and effectively selected knowledge, perceptive and sustained comparative analysis, and consistently substantiated judgements leading to a fully focused conclusion. |
Pearson's 2024 mark scheme confirms these levels and states that AO2 should involve analytical views that both support and reject the proposition, while AO3 should produce reasoned judgements and conclusions.
Question 7(a)
Question
To what extent do nationalists agree that shared culture is the most important basis of national identity?
The crucial phrase is “most important basis”. Students should not simply explain cultural nationalism. They need to compare culture with alternative bases of national identity, particularly civic participation, shared political values, ethnicity, emotional national attachment and self-determination.
The specification defines culturalism as the idea that nationalism is based on shared cultural and societal values, while acknowledging that some nationalism is grounded in more mystical and emotional ties. It also defines a nation more broadly as people identifying themselves as a cohesive group based on shared values, so culture is important but is not the only possible basis of nationhood.
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