Citizenship OCR GCSE

• Democracy: Government by the people; rule of the majority.
• Direct democracy: When citizens make decisions directly through voting on issues themselves.
• Electoral system: The way that elections are held and votes counted.
• Citizen: A person who is legally entitled to live, work or vote within the country.
• Representative democracy: A system where citizens elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf.
• First-past-the-post (FPTP): A type of electoral system where the candidate with most votes wins, even if they do not have an overall majority.
• Devolution: Power being transferred from central government to regional governments.
• House of Lords: Second chamber of parliament with unelected members.
• House of Commons: The elected lower house of parliament.
• Prime Minister: The leader of the political party that holds the most seats in the House of Commons.
• Constitution: The set of rules governing how the state operates.
• Magna Carta: A document signed by King John in 1215, which established the principle that everyone is subject to the law.
• Reform: making an offender aware of their actions
• Rehabilitate: retraining an offender to reenter society
• Retribution: punishing criminals because they deserve it
• Restorative justice: bringing together victims and offenders to discuss what has happened and agree on ways to make things right
• Civil liberties: rights granted to citizens by the government
• Immigration : moving from one country to another
• Human rights: basic freedoms that belong to all human beings
• Asylum seeker: someone who is seeking refugee status in a new country
• Refugees: people forced to leave their home countries due to war, persecution or natural disasters
• Economic migrants: people who move abroad to find work
• Electoral system: how votes are counted at elections
• Rights: something that everyone has because they are born into society
• Commonwealth : an organization of former British colonies that promote British values
• Bicameral: a system in which the legislative has 2 houses
• Constituency: an area of voters represented by a single mp
• Joint enterprise


  Means all participants in a crime can be held responsible for its outcomes
• Joint enterprise


  • If a gang attacked someone, all members of the gang can be held responsible for the outcome no matter their role in the attack
• Public order offences


  Offences that prevent people going about their normal business
• Exercising rights to Speech and assembly

  • Without obstructing or threatening others
• Inchoate offences


  The police can arrest and charge people who are planning or intending to commit a crime, even though no criminal activity has taken place
• Republic: a country with an elected head of state rather than a monarch . Exalples include france and the usa
• Unionist: an individual or political party who believes in supporting the union of England, Wales Scotland and northern Ireland
• voter apathy : a lack of political interest by citizens
• theocracy: a government ruled by religious leaders
• ultra vires : acting beyond your legal power or authority
• international humanitarian law: agreed law in regard to human rights , normally written by international organizations . e.g The united nations
• extradite; hand over a person accused of a crime to their home country
• full council : made up of all elected councillors who debate and decide up policy based on reports by various committies