"By 1928 the essentials of democracy had been achieved." How far would you agree?

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Amdg               Laura Sermanni  History essay         11/09/04                                    

                        “By 1928 the essentials of democracy had been achieved.” How far would you agree?

Democracy is definable as a form of government where there is a fair representation system, universal adult suffrage, the right of the electorate to participate in the political process, freedom of speech for all, a government dependant on majority support in the commons and regular elections, free of corruption. In the eighteen hundreds various events, such as the French revolution, made many Britons wary of democracy, because of the radicalism and violence that had occurred during them. However by 1900 politicians were eager to be seen as champions of democracy.

                    The electoral system in Britain before the 1932 reform bill had been virtually unchanged since the late 1680s, by comparison to a country whose economy, class system and political methods had changed substantially since that time. The principle reason for the great change in the orientation of the country was the Industrial Revolution, which had created a new economy and caused the emergence of new cities such as Manchester and Birmingham where the new factories were centred. However, because the electoral system was still that which had been formulated in 1682, these new towns had no political representation, while towns, which had been important then but now had as few as ten inhabitants still had two MPs in the House of Commons. These were known as rotten boroughs. Voting was done by counting hands in an open vote, a process, which made it easy for a landlord to see which of his tenants had betrayed him and so treat them worse as a result. This led to corruption. Demand for reform had grown as the industrial revolution had grown.

          The reform bill of 1932 was not meant to be the first step towards democracy. It was quite the opposite. Earl Grey described it as:

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“The most aristocratic and reactionary measure ever to pass this house.”

Rotten boroughs had generally been eliminated and the new industrialists enfranchised, however the process remained the same open vote, and there was a ten-pound property qualification, which meant that, the majority of the working classes, who owned nothing, could not vote. Also, it was still necessary to pay to stand for election, and so almost all people who stood for election were still aristocrats, landowners or businessmen. The act itself did not bring democracy any closer but because of the standard wealth qualification many put pressure for this ...

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