Britain Breadth (1): Reform of Parliament Flashcards
Representation of the people act 1832 (consequences)
number of positive changes, particularly in redistributing seats away from the rotten boroughs to the growing industrial towns. However, many faults of the pre-reform parliament remained.
- 143 seats redistributed
- The number of voters in constituencies varied enormously. 35 boroughs with less than 30 voters and the south remained over-represented compared to the north.
- The electorate increased but it remained a small percentage of the population 3-8%. In Preston the men entitled to vote dropped from 88% to 11.6% by 1851.
- Intimidation, corruption and bribery remained rife. One reformer spent £6000 on his election campaigns in Nottingham in 1834 and 37.
- Legally denied women the vote for the first time
- Put Britain on the path to further franchise extension.
- £10 property qualification removed some working class men from the franchise.
- only 3.3% of population of 24 million had the vote after the act
- Chandos agreement actually strengthened the grip of landowner MPs
1832 ROPA (Causes)
Earl Grey “My object is not to favour but put an end to such hopes” - November 1831.
- Friends of the people (Whig) promoted moderate refrom
- Paranoia reform would lead to revolution (Fears caused by French rev).
- Peaceful protest e.g. BPU 130 and over 100 political unions across UK.
- Violent protest: days of may 1832. Swing riots 1830
Representation of the people act 1867 (causes )
- Proposed by Disraeli’s government, a tactical move by the conservatives to cede the towns they were losing in whilst strengthening their position in the countryside.
- Hyde park riot = 200,000 people 1866
- Death of Palmerstone removed a significant barrier to reform.
- Gladstone was converted to the cause.
- Darby formed conservative gov w/ Disraeli = cold political calculation.
1867 ROPA (consequences)
- Vote was extended to all householders who paid rates. Lodgers paying £10 a year also received the vote.
- huge extension in the counties - all ratepayers who payed £12 a year or more and leaseholds of land valued at at least £5 a year.
- Boroughs w/ a population of less than 10,000 lost one MP w/ the resulting 45 seats being redistributed.
- Electorate nearly doubled form 1.36 to 2.46 million, most of increase was made up of the urban working class.
- Agricultural labourers were still largely without the vote, the radical objective of equal constituencies was far from being realised.
1884 ROPA (causes)
Ideological conviction: Joseph Chamberlain = driving force.
Main barrier: Conservatives and House of Lords.
Pragmatism: Counties were controlled by landowning and wealthy farmers voting conservative. Extending vote to agricultural labourers who were likely to vote Liberal threatened the Tory hold over the countryside.
Compromise: Arlington street compact. Lord Salisbury agreed to the act if it was followed by a redistribution of seats.
Representation of the people act 1884 (consequences)
Gave the vote to all householders, whether in borough or county constituencies. This increased the electorate by approximately 2.5 million. 85%.
While the third reform act continued the extension of the franchise among the labouring classes, barriers remained to the exercise of the vote - was difficult to travel to vote, polls opened at eight when people were already at work and closed at eight - leaving those with a long way to travel little time to vote.
1/3 of men and all women still excluded from the franchise.
Representation of the people act 1918
On the eve of WW1, 65% of men and no women had the vote, giving Britain one of the least representative electoral systems in Europe. 1918 ROPA dramatically changed this, extending the vote to all men over 21 and women over 30 who met a property qualification.
- The war was a crucial accelerator of franchise reform.
Despite it’s huge scope this act wasn’t the end of the road towards democracy. Women had to wait until 1928 to gain the vote on equal terms to men.
Only 40% of women could vote.
Nancy Astor first woman to take a seat in the house of commons 1919.
Trippled the electorate from 7-21 million - largest numerically so far.
Issue of reform addressed at speakers conference in 1916.
Representation of the people act 1928
Sometimes seems an inevitability but there are three main causes:
* Feminist pressure groups such as the National union of societies for equal citizenship (NUSEC) kept the continued inequality a live political issue.
* LP kept equal suffrage on the political agenda as it had more to gain from working women having the vote.
* Deciding factor was the conservative party. Women’s organisation was the fastest growing element. Baldwin saw them as key to future success. In 1927 his government agreed to support equal franchise.
Opposition remained, the Daily mail led a hate-campaign against giving the vote to ‘flappers’.
* 14.5 mill women voters, 12.25 mill male.
The Franchise c1780
Not democratic, elections were intended to ensure that the interests of every part of the country were represented, and that an element of competition took place between the aristocracy and county gentry.
40 counties which each selected 2 MPs. E.g. Yorkshire had 20,000 votes.
In the 1780 election only 2 counties actually fought an election contest.
Over half of the broughs could be bought and the average price was £3,000 - £4,000. bought by major political families
122 MPs represented counties and 532 MPs represented boroughs.
Pressures for change and reasons for resistance
Industrialisation led to gradual change in the balance of the economy. Also changed the social make-up of the country with the emergence of a new middle class. Industrial interests weren’t strongly represented in parliament manifesting a mismatch between parliament and the people, leading to growing pressure.
- Impact of the FR: sparked serious interest in reform and widespread demand for change i.e. LCS 1792. Whigs hoped to control the pace of change by promoting modest amendments to the electoral system (friends of the people 1792).
- Post war unrest 1815-30: Economic downturn and the impact of industrialisation created a toxic mixture of grievances. Short-term popular protest failed, long-term they revived interest in parliamentary reform. End of Tory dominance.
The problems of representation c1780
Survey conducted in 1780: electorate of Britain and Wales = less than 3% of a population of around 8 million.
Large industrial cities didn’t have a single MP whereas rotten boroughs were still sending 2 MPs, e.g. Dunwich which had a population of 32 in 1831.
Before 1832 60-75% of seats weren’t contested at all at a general election.
Electoral system didn’t take into account changes in the distribution of the population.
The failure of Pitt’s proposals
1785 introduced a bill to remove 36 Rotten boroughs. Bill was defeated. Old Sarum had 7 voters and still sent 2 MPs to parliament. Ireland has it’s parliament shut down, act of union 1800’s.
Reasons for resistance and Key changes brought about by reform: ROPA 1832
44 new borough seats were created, many going to new industrial towns, however the influence of this was partially offset by the granting of 65 extra seats to the counties.
Whigs were determined to remove the worst excess of the old representative system but did not introduce any mathematical uniformity in the distribution of seats. New seats reflected economic interests rather than the populations of the towns. Salford had an electorate of 1,497 while Reigate had one of just 153; both towns returned just one MP. Anomalies remained. There were many larger towns in Yorkshire etc that still had no representation.
Reasons for resistance and Key changes brought about by reform: ROPA 1867
334 borough MPs represented 9.5 million people while 11.5 million people in the counties had just 162 members.
less substantial than the changes made in 1832
The 25 new seats led to a strengthening of the landed interest whose members tended to favour the conservatives.
Reasons for resistance and Key changes brought about by reform: ROPA 1884
