Refreshed and completely restructured to align with the new Edexcel Politics A-Level specification, this is the new edition of Andrew Heywood's highly respected introduction to political ideas, ideologies and thinkers for A-Level students. Essentials of Political Ideas is the only Edexcel-specific text on ideas on the market. Suitable for flexible use across all ideas components of the A-Level course, it offers full coverage of both the core political ideas (conservatism, liberalism and socialism) and the non-core ideas (anarchism, ecologism, feminism, multiculturalism and nationalism). Drawing on her extensive teaching, examining and workshop experience, Kathy Schindler has adapted the text to make it even more student-friendly and focused on exam success. Practical and informative pedagogy, from Key Thinker boxes to Similarities and Differences summaries, will enable students to understand and analyse key political concepts and thinkers and construct persuasive arguments using the correct terminology. This new edition offers: - A dedicated Exam Skills chapter, giving advice for exam success alongside annotated example answers - An extensive companion website with further sample answers, teaching tips, revision planning resources, links for further study and more - Coverage of thinkers not included on the specification, helping students to place their understanding in a broader context