Evaluate the view that the difficulty of amending the US Constitution is more of a strength than a weakness.
“Evaluate” requires you to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of the difficult amendment process and reach a justified judgement about which are more important. For 30 marks, develop a balanced argument supported by accurate constitutional examples, explaining whether the process successfully balances stability, rights protection and democratic change.
Edexcel A-Level Politics: question context and source
Specification code: 9PL0
Component: 3A, Comparative Politics: USA
Topic: 1.1, The nature of the US Constitution, including the amendment process and its advantages and disadvantages.
No source extract accompanied this question. It is an essay question, so source analysis is not required. The following authentic extract is included as supporting revision material.
Supporting source: Article V of the US Constitution
“when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof”
Article V requires a demanding ratification threshold. It also provides two proposal routes: two-thirds approval in both houses of Congress, or a convention called by Congress following applications from two-thirds of state legislatures.
Edexcel A-Level Politics: indicative mark scheme
This is an original indicative mark scheme, aligned with Edexcel’s assessment framework. It is not an official Pearson mark scheme for this particular question.
Assessment objectives
Assessment objective | Marks | What the answer should demonstrate |
AO1: Knowledge and understanding | 10 | Accurate knowledge of Article V, entrenchment and relevant successful or unsuccessful amendments. |
AO2: Analysis | 10 | Explain how amendment difficulties affect stability, rights, federalism and constitutional reform. |
AO3: Evaluation | 10 | Weigh these consequences and justify whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. |
Edexcel requires balanced consideration of the argument and its alternative. Answers that do not do this cannot progress beyond Level 2 under its essay guidance.
Indicative levels of response
These are concise paraphrases of Pearson’s level descriptors.
Level | Marks | Characteristics |
5 | 25–30 | Detailed knowledge, convincing analysis and sustained, well-supported evaluation. |
4 | 19–24 | Accurate knowledge, coherent analysis and mostly justified judgements. |
3 | 13–18 | Mostly accurate knowledge, relevant analysis and some supported evaluation. |
2 | 7–12 | Some relevant knowledge, partially developed explanations and limited evaluation. |
1 | 1–6 | Superficial knowledge, limited reasoning and unsupported conclusions. |
0 | 0 | No creditworthy material. |
The overall quality determines the level. There is no fixed number of examples or paragraphs that guarantees a particular mark.
Essential constitutional knowledge
Students should understand the distinction between proposal and ratification.
Stage | Available routes |
Proposal | Two-thirds of both houses of Congress, or a national convention called following applications from two-thirds of state legislatures. |
Ratification | Approval by three-quarters of state legislatures, or conventions in three-quarters of states. Congress selects the ratification method. |
With 50 states, the state application threshold is 34, while ratification requires 38. The president neither signs nor vetoes constitutional amendments. All 27 ratified amendments were proposed through Congress.
Indicative arguments supporting the view
1. Difficult amendment protects constitutional stability.
Constitutional rules cannot be rewritten by an ordinary congressional majority. This reduces the opportunity for a governing party to change the rules for short-term advantage.
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