How Does The Chartists Affect Uk Democracy

Their quiet persuasion gained alot of support. Also, only two weeks before the out break of the World War, the Suffragists were negotiating with the Government over their right to vote. However, there was alot of anti-suffrage from people, for example Queen Victoria and working class men.

Firstly the House of Lords reform where the voting rights of most hereditary peers was abolished. This makes the UK less undemocratic rather then more democratic. This is due to the fact that the House of Lords as a whole is an unelected chamber and therefore undemocratic, however by removing the voting rights of some

This changed in the introduction of secret balloting in 1872 which allowed voters to vote in secret polling booths rather than public stands which gave the voters the anonymity that allows them to vote for who they want to which, in turn, made Britain more democratic than before but obviously bribery and corruption was still in existence. The Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act of 1883 improved this situation more by limiting how much candidates could spend during election time, banning practices such as buying food or drink for voters and candidates had to account for all election expenses therefore flagging up if they were bribing. The law also stated how many carriages could be used to carry voters to the polls! By 1918 Britain was more democratic than it had been but it was still far from being totally democratic as the franchise favoured a MP that would make donations to their local teams, hospitals etc.

There is an argument that the government has the power and right to change laws and represent people without necessarily having to be elected. This can also be known as ‘Democratic deficit’. An example of democratic deficit is the House of Lords. The members in the House of Lords aren’t elected but they get to make laws and represent the people. The members in House of Lords are usually given their seats hereditarily so many people found it unfair that they’re not elected into the Parliament but they can make decisions and laws

Another problem with the voting system was the lack of a private vote. Employers could influence the way their employees voted by threatening to punish them if they failed to vote for their preffered candidate. This problem was fixed in 1872, when William Gladstone's government passed the Ballot Act which guaranteed a secret system of voting. Although the immediate results of the reform act were not earth shattering, the country had taken, as Lord Derby said, "a leap in the dark." Strikes, union advances, and labor organization were powerful forces for change in the final years of the century. William Gladstone was elected as Prime Minister of England for the second time in 1880 and the most important legislative action that took place during his second ministry was the Reform Act of 1884. The reform act was rejected the first time it was presented to the House of Lords, but accepted the second time because it was accompanied by a redistribution act, which had the following implications. "(i) seventy-nine towns with populations smaller than 15,000 lost their right to elect an MP; (ii) thirty-six with populations between 15,000 and 50,000 lost one of their MPs and became single member constituencies; (iii) towns with populations between 50,000 and 165,000 were given two seats; (iv) larger towns and the country constituencies were divided into single member constituencies" (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PR1885.htm). The actual Reform Act of 1884

Also, voters and politicians now nominated candidates, rather than the political party leaders in Congress. This and other events led to a more democratic society.

The War of 1812 was small, but it brought huge consequences throughout the nation. Nationalism revived, and Federalist party met their end after Hartford convention in 1815. After the first termination of the first party system, there were several forces and events that led to the changes in the ways of participating elections. Especially in 1824, 1828, 1832, and 1840, these ways changed by the cause of the expansion of the suffrage, adaptation of the Spoils System, the running-mate system, and the rise of second party system.

America also saw lots of political restriction during this time. There were still restrictions on who could and could not vote, including women, gender inequality, and restrictions on voting rights of the poor due to laws that taxed voting. Immigrants who came here to find a better life

One of the changes made to the Constitution was that slaves, women, and more citizens have the right of suffrage. In document #2, it states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged...on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude...on account of sex.” It also states, “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged.” Both of these were added to the Constitution because although throughout history, citizens were angry that some of them didn’t have the right to vote. After the 13th amendment, blacks viewed themselves as citizens and they expected to have the right of suffrage. Women didn’t view themselves below men in the social class so they fought for the right to vote by protesting and creating female activist groups. To be able to fix this problem, the Constitution was

For example. the direct election of senators was achieved, with the direct support of Roosevelt (D), became the Seventeenth Amendment, helping to limit the power of the corrupt political machine. Another large change on the political stage was the inclusion of women. The National Women’s Party, the more militant side of women’s suffrage led by Alice Paul became famous for fighting for women’s suffrage even while World War Ⅰ was going on (H) by picketing the White House. Eventually, suffrage was achieved, leading to the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment. However, it is interesting to note that in Document J, we notice that on the graph after 1920, the percentage of possible voters that were using that ability had dropped, meaning that even though many women had campaigned for the right to vote, not many that were granted it were using it, less than half the percentage of available voters were choosing to vote. The political stage was changed due to Progressive Era reformers but the effect was limited by who chose to take advantage of the

Almost all of the leaders in the House of Commons and in some other sections of politics, such as newspapers, called for a reform to the British Electoral System, which ultimately led to reform and the later repealing of the Corn Laws. Numerous reasons were given as to why reform was vital for Britain, a country which was having some difficulties since the Corn Laws were introduced 1815. Most of these reasons were economic, as taxes were high, it hurt the middle class, and there was possibly even some despotism in England. All of these factors led to a commotion in England for a reform which finally came in 1832.

Industrial Countries all over the world have seen a steady decline in voter participation; Great Britain is a great example of this. The country has witness turnout in elections falling slowly as time pass. However, the election of 2001 dropped the country from their average of 76% voter turnout to just a 59.4% turnout. Comparatively, Australia, a former colony of Britain, has enjoyed high and steady voter participation since 1924 because of the implementation of compulsory voting. This system has proven to be not only effective in bring voters to the polls, but also effective in improving Australia’s democracy. By evaluating these two countries with similar political structure; one can see the difference in compulsory voting turnouts

With regards to seats the Reform Act still didn’t push towards democracy however there were still some democratic features. The disfranchising of rotten boroughs was seen as democratic and in addition reducing the representation of boroughs in comparison to counties also leaned towards democracy. In spite of this the seats still didn’t correspond very closely to the population and rural areas still continued to be over representative. Small boroughs still remained and towns with very high population were denied separate parliamentary representation. Even though the reform act did make slight changes towards democracy with regards to seats, I believe it still remained somewhat undemocratic.

The 1832 Parliamentary Reform Act was the beginning of electoral reform in Britain. The Act increased the size of the electorate, abolished some ‘rotten boroughs’ and provided more representation for those who lived in metropolitan areas of Britain. The Parliamentary Reform Bill is a useful primary source when looking at how the electoral system changed in Britain because it shows exactly how the electoral system changed in Britain. However, it is not able to show what effect the act had on the British people, who supported or opposed the Act and the Act does not show how corrupt the old system was.

 1848, the year Mary Barton was published, saw a final demonstration by the Chartists. This time they had collected over 5,000,000 signatures and the presentation to the  Parliament was attended with  great ceremony; an impressive parade carried the wagon-loads of signatures to the House of Commons. This was the year of revolution in Europe--there had been revolts in Paris, Vienna (3), Venice, Berlin, Milan, Rome, and Czechoslovakia--and the British government was desperately afraid of large-scale demonstrations. Many troops were deployed in London and the petition failed again, which brought about the virtual end of Chartism.