Which changes in the franchise and electoral methods in the period 1868 and 1992 did most to make Britainmore democratic?

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Jennie Seager                125/9/2007

Which changes in the franchise and electoral methods in the period 1868 and 1992 did most to make Britain more democratic?

There are many countries that claim to democratic, and the United Kingdom is one of these. We elect our government, which is the key feature of a representative democracy; however this is not necessarily enough to make our country a democracy. Other features of a representative democracy are: - a choice of political parties, free and fair elections and civil and political rights. Britain has all of these features, but to different degrees. Since 1868 many changes have been made to the British franchise and electoral methods, which have created a more democratic country for British citizens, the most important of these changes will be explored in this essay.

One very important aspect of democracy is fair elections; in Britain up until 1872 there was much patronage as votes were held in public. Gladstone was Liberal Prime Minister from 1868-1874 and he was responsible for a major series of reforms. One of these reforms was the 1872 Ballot Act, this act introduced the secret ballot, which meant that people could vote in secret without being intimidated or threatened into voting for a certain party. Gladstone continued his reform of the electoral system with the Corrupt Practices Act in 1884; this made bribery, treatment and personation at elections criminal offences. Thereby for 1884 onwards it can be said Britain was more democratic because people were able to vote for the party they felt were best able to represent them and their views, and nobody could be coerced or forced to vote for any particular party.

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In a democracy every electorates vote should be worth the same amount. However in Britain after 1800, different voters had different voting-power. The constituencies were different sizes, some were ‘rotten boroughs’ with very few people in them, and the fewer the number of people in a constituency the more power each vote in that constituency had. In 1885 the Redistribution of Seats Act was passed, this redistributed the constituencies fairly, making the power of each vote, in theory, equal. For a election to be fair people should also have the same number of votes, as if some people have ...

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