This paper focuses on the practice of democracy, and especially its institutions, processes and political outputs. It asks you to think about the nature and functioning of institutions and rules in a liberal democracy; to consider their aims and how well they realize them; and to identify the effects they have on the design and implementation of public policies. This part of the course also encourages you to consider the necessary and sufficient conditions of democratic government and political stability. These questions may be approached both by the close study of four contemporary political systems (the United States of America; the United Kingdom; France; Germany) and also by the comparative study of a range of countries. Candidates must show knowledge of at least three of these political systems. There will be a range of questions sufficiently broad to afford a reasonable choice to candidates who have studied the topics ‘country by country’; to those who have studied them comparatively; and those who have done something of each.