POLITICAL POWERS
& THE RULE OF LAW

Method: Commenting on 2 documents

GUIDELINE: The evolution of US democracy

Stage 1: Introduction - Presenting the documents
Say what the docs have in common, usually the topic (in the guideline) and the context (but not here).
+ Define notion(s) in the guideline, the title (here "democracy" in the guideline).
Both documents deal with the evolution of US democracy, that is to say the government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Give the differences between the docs, rephrase the references of each document.
The 1st document is a diagram showing the republic set up by the US constitution of 1787 after the US War of Independence (1775-1783) against Britain whereas the 2nd document is an article about the 1st US Black president by Michael Eric Dyson published in The Guardian on 5 November 2008, after Barack Obama’s election to the presidency.
Give the structure, usually one part for each document (use the guideline and/or the topic of each document).
In a first part, I will show that in 1787 the US was not a democracy using the diagram and in a second part I'm going to explain how it became one thanks to the article.

Stage 2: Analysing the documents
Analyzing a text.
• Analyse the text paragraph by paragraph to follow its logic.
• Give a title (= the main idea) to each paragraph.
• Rephrase what each paragrapoh says with synonyms to show you understand what it means.

 DESCRIBE THE DOCS
What you see (=DOCS)
  INTERPRET THE DOCS
What you know (=NOTIONS)

PART 1. Firstly, the diagram shows the the USA wasn't really a democracy in 1787
Many elections:
 US voters elected:
- indirectly the President so the executive power
- directly Congress so the legislative power too
But only some Anericans vote:
Voters are white, free, male owners
=> no slaves, no women, no poor people

=> Notion 1 : the sovereignty of the pople=... give the full definition given in the Recap I.4.
& Notion 2 : a republic = def in Recap I.1.
+ Notion 3 & 4: executive & legislative powers = def in Recap I.2.
+ Notion 5 : But not a democracy because ...
... Notion 6 : restricted franchise = definition in Recap II.1.

PART 2. Secondly, the article explains how the USA became a democracy
P1 (title) An historic victory
(Structure & rephrase) Obama 1st Black president = a landmark for:
- the current president George W. Bush
- all African-Americans victimes of slavery, segregation & prejudice.
P2 (main idea) as Blacks weren't full citizens
(Structure & rephrase)
- They were forgotten in major US documents: the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution.
- President Lincoln abolished slavery but African-Americans had to fight to get their political rights with President Johnson's laws in 1964-1965..

/
/

Facts : the Declaration of Independence. Use the US historical context in the Planning

+ Facts : freedom thanks to Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation after the Civil War (1860-1865).
+ Facts : but equality one century of prejudice later thanks to the civil rights struggle by Martin Luther King & Malcom X.
=> universal franchise & true democracy

Stage 3: Concluding
Assess the documents, say if the documents are reliable or not and biased or not without forgetting to justify your choice.
To conclude, both docs are unbiased (describe the US political system & give facts), and reliable as the Guardian is a quality UK newspaper.
Sum-up the main ideas, recap what the 2 documents showed you.
To recap, these docs show that the US republic didn’t start as a democracy but progressively became one although it took one century for African-Americans to become “real” citizens.
+ Opening, open on a related topic you are interested in / you know a lot about, to prompt the examiner into asking you questions on this particular topic.
What about democracy in not in a republic but this time in a monarchy like the UK?