This began to change by means of reform under the Liberal government. The first of these was the 1832 great reform act. Its main progression was the passing of suffrage to some of the middle class. It abolished rotten and pocket boroughs through the process of redistributing constituencies and allowing more representation for the bigger cities. Eight extra MPs were given to Scotland to represent the cities. The number of voters in Britain had increased slightly to 653,000, leaving twenty million people without the vote. British politics had made a move in the right direction, although the act had failed to change much, the very wealthy still dominated politics.
In 1867 the Conservative government introduced the Parliamentary Reform Act which increased the electorate to almost 2.5 million. It gave the vote to the cities’ working class. However, the Act did not alter the balance of political power in Britain. The middle classes still dominated the electorate, both in the towns and in the boroughs. The electorate remained as before in both the boroughs and the counties, namely the middle classes. By the 1880s it was widely recognized that voters in counties deserved the same political rights as those in the boroughs and this led to the 1884 Parliamentary Reform Act. This Act created a uniform franchise in both county and borough and applied to the United Kingdom as a whole. This Act enfranchised a significant number of voters and approximately two in three men now had the vote, almost 18% of the total population. By 1918 there was a general feeling that the horrors of World War I had to be for something positive. As a consequence, in the same year the war ended, the Representation of the People Act gave the vote to all men over 21 and to all women over the age of 30 years. However, women still did not have equal franchise. An improvement on this was made in the Equal Franchise Act of 1928. This act enfranchised women on the same terms as men; it raised the number of electors to just over 15million million women and almost 14 million men, there were now more women than men eligible to vote.
While the 1867 Reform Act gradually moved the nation towards a democracy, the Secret Ballot Act of 1872 was essential in that it was needed to rid the voting system of bribery and corruption. Once voting was done in private, intimidation decreased dramatically. However, the act did not wipe out corruption completely. It took the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act of 1883 to stop corruption altogether. Candidates were restricted in how much they could spend campaigning and what they could spend it on. Allegations of illegal acts during elections did decline significantly after this Act was passed and average election expenditure of candidates also fell significantly. Although corruption declined it did not completely die out.
The 1867 Reform Act gave the vote to about 1,500,000 men. The Reform Act also dealt with constituencies and boroughs with less than 10,000 inhabitants lost one of their MPs. The forty-five seats left available were redistributed by giving MPs to those towns that had never had one, and the big cities. William Gladstone and his Liberal government introduced new proposals for parliamentary reform in 1885. This reform made it so 79 towns with small populations lost their right to elect an MP. It also gave towns with larger populations two seats and divided up the larger towns and country constituencies into single member constituencies. These two acts contributed to Britain becoming more democratic.
The liberals wish to eliminate the veto power of the House of Lords as they had refused to pass the People’s budget of 1909. The 1911 Parliament Act removed this veto power from the House of Lords and was replaced with delaying power. This act was of fundamental importance to democracy in Britain as it took power away from the unelected Lords and increased the power of the elected House of Commons. It also reduced the power of aristocracy.
Before the Abolition of the Property Qualification for Parliamentary Candidates in 1858 it was the wealthy-upper class that dominated the House of Commons. This was because in boroughs, in order to even stand for election candidates had to own property valued from £300-£600. It was very difficult for talented middle-class men to become MPs. This Act abolished the property qualification for parliamentary candidates. It allowed the middle-class men of talent to become MPs. However, MPs were still unpaid so only those with some sort of private income could realistically stand for election to parliament. This changed following the parliament Act of 1911, as MPs were to be paid £400 per year; this meant that working class men could now be MPs because they would not require additional income.
In conclusion, it is clear that, through time and large reform, Britain became a democracy, meeting all the requirements. 1832 had started reform off, giving some of the middle class the vote. 1867 saw the skilled working class enfranchised, and more MPs to represent Scotland. The Secret Ballot Act in 1872 was essential towards democracy, as were 1884 and 1885 acts that redistributed the constituencies. However, the head of state was still unelected, as were the Peers and Lords. Furthermore, some believed that 21 was too high an age and should be lowered to enfranchise further but overall, there was a large improvement in Britain’s democratic status.