Crossbench
UK PoliticsOverviewDemocracy and participationPolitical partiesElectoral systemsVoting behaviour and the media
UK GovernmentOverviewThe constitutionParliamentPrime Minister and executiveRelations between the branches
Political IdeasOverviewLiberalismConservatismSocialismFeminismComparison framework
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Political Ideas

Political Ideas

The three core ideas (liberalism, conservatism and socialism, assessed in Paper 1) and the non-core idea studied here (feminism, assessed in Paper 2). Each covers core principles, internal tensions and five set thinkers.

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Liberalism

Classical · Modern

John LockeMary WollstonecraftJohn Stuart MillJohn RawlsBetty Friedan
Core idea · Paper 1, Section BExplore
AI draft · unreviewed

Conservatism

Traditional · One-nation · New Right: neo-liberal · New Right: neo-conservative

Thomas HobbesEdmund BurkeMichael OakeshottAyn RandRobert Nozick
Core idea · Paper 1, Section BExplore
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Socialism

Revolutionary socialism · Social democracy · Third Way

Karl Marx and Friedrich EngelsBeatrice WebbRosa LuxemburgAnthony CroslandAnthony Giddens
Core idea · Paper 1, Section BExplore
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Feminism

Liberal · Socialist · Radical · Post-modern

Charlotte Perkins GilmanSimone de BeauvoirKate MillettSheila Rowbothambell hooks
Non-core idea · Paper 2, Section BExplore

The ideas are grouped here as their own section. In the exams, liberalism, conservatism and socialism are assessed in Paper 1, Section B, and feminism in Paper 2, Section B.

Sources

  1. 1A level Politics specification, Issue 4
    Pearson Edexcel · 2026 · Specification    Opened 4 November 2026