How important was popualr pressure in the passing of the 1832 reform act?

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How important was popular pressure in the passing of the 1832 reform act?

Popular pressure can be described as pressure applied by the people, to force the government into doing what the majority want. This can take the form of petitions, unions, demonstrations, protests, books and newspaper articles. It is safe to say that popular pressure did play a part a large part in the passing of the 1832 reform act. However, we must not understate other important factors of political self interest, changing political attitudes and social and economic changes.

The first reform bill was put forward in March 1831, but was refused when it came to the House of Lords; this was because of the bills indication of removing some of the lord’s privileges. Nonetheless, the Reform Bill was eventually passed through parliament, in 1832 and given the royal assent, this was to prevent the possibility of a revolution.

The countries attitude was going through a large change at this time, because of the American and French Revolutions. Both of these revolutions led to the overthrow of the countries monarchical power. The people saw such ideas, as representation of popular sovereignty and this merely added to the peoples need for a reform amongst the countries crisis. Nevertheless, the  party did not create the crisis surrounding the , because the need for reform had arisen far before the Whigs had even come to power. This can be observed in 's refusal, which caused the fall of his government in 1830 and sparked the beginning of the understanding that something needed to be done with the corrupt governmental system. Although the leading politicians recognised the influence of public opinion, it would be a mistake to overstress the role of popular pressure, because it was the parliament who passed the Reform Bill, not the people. Furthermore, it can also be argued that the Whigs' necessity to pass the Reform Bill, was merely through political self interest, since the  had over 200 rotten boroughs whilst the Whigs had only 73. This would evidently cripple the Tories if the Whigs were to try and regain power. Yet, there may be truth to this argument; the tremendous fear of revolution was very real amongst the Whig government.

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By 1831, even the most anti-reformist of opponents were beginning to relate to the opinion of the Whigs, that reform may be necessary. This can be seen when the Duke of Wellington attempted to form a Tory government in May 1832 pledging to parliamentary reform, but this was too little to late. Peel refused, because he did not want to draw back on his previous policies, so refused office. In April 1831 William IV agreed to dissolve parliament, and have a general  on the issue of reform. Since at this time, this would prevent revolution by providing a vent ...

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