The meaning of active citizenship and citizenship action, the difference between advocacy and direct action, and the skills citizens use to bring about change.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to understand what active citizenship and citizenship action mean, the difference between advocacy and direct action, and the skills citizens need to make a difference. Active citizenship is a required part of the course: in Paper 1 Section A you draw on a real citizenship action you investigated and carried out, so you must understand these concepts well enough to apply them to your own work and to unseen examples. Examiners expect you to distinguish acting from merely understanding the political system, and to recognise that effective action follows a process of investigate, plan, act and evaluate.

What active citizenship means

For AQA, active citizenship is a required practical element: you investigate a citizenship issue, take action on it and evaluate what happened. The distinction the specification draws is between the citizen as a passive observer who knows their rights and how Parliament works, and the active citizen who uses that knowledge to do something. Active citizenship can be small-scale and local, such as improving a community space, or larger, such as campaigning to change a school or council policy. What matters is participation aimed at change, carried out lawfully and responsibly, working with and respecting others.

Citizenship action

Action can be carried out by individuals or groups and aims to make a real difference to a community or a cause. AQA treats citizenship action as a structured cycle rather than a one-off gesture: you identify and research an issue, decide an aim, plan how to act, carry out the action, and then evaluate it against the aim. This cycle is what the active citizenship assessment tests, so being able to name and order the stages is itself examinable knowledge. Good citizenship action also considers different viewpoints, including those who might disagree, and works within the law.

Advocacy and direct action

Both are valid forms of citizenship action; many campaigns combine the two. The crucial contrast is who carries out the change. In advocacy you do not solve the problem yourself, you persuade someone with the power to do so, which is why advocacy depends heavily on evidence and on targeting the right decision-maker. In direct action you address the problem directly, for example by clearing a neglected park rather than petitioning the council to do it. Effective campaigns often pair them: direct action that demonstrates public support (a well-attended litter pick) strengthens the advocacy case made to the council. Both must remain peaceful and lawful to keep public sympathy and to count as legitimate citizenship action.

Skills for taking action

Effective citizenship action uses a range of skills:

• Research to understand the issue and gather evidence.
• Planning to set clear aims and decide how to act.
• Teamwork and communication to work with others and spread the message.
• Persuasion to win support and influence decision-makers.
• Evaluation to judge what worked and what could be improved.

These skills map onto the assessment. Research and planning underpin the early stages; teamwork, communication and persuasion drive the action itself; and evaluation closes the cycle. AQA rewards candidates who can show they used these skills deliberately, for example explaining that they surveyed opinion (research), divided roles (teamwork) and tailored their message to a councillor (persuasion). Naming the skill and giving a concrete example of using it is what lifts an answer above a bare list.