How Far Had Britain Moved Towards a Full Democracy by 1928 Essay Example
How far Britain had progressed towards full democracy by 1928?
Government of the people, for the people, by the people' was Abraham Lincoln's famous definition of democracy-1852. At the beginning of the 19th century the term democracy' was feared, as it was associated with the anarchy and violence of the French Revolution. During the 19th century a sea change occurred. Democracy acquired a momentum so that by 1865 Gladstone could say the country not only demands reform but expects it'. This essay will examine how far Britain had progressed towards full democracy.
The Parliamentary system in Britain in the 1830s had hardly changed since the sixteenth century. Britain was still one of the few representative governments in Europe with most others being ruled by an autocratic monarch. Voting was not seen as a universal right but as a privilege for the wealthiest class of society. The right to vote depended on three things: gender; only men over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. Property. In order to vote, an individual had to own property over a certain value. And finally location. Small boroughs were represented while large industrial towns were not. The idea that all adults should have the right to vote had little support in Parliament, which was dominated by the aristocratic landowners. They argued that only people with "a stake in the country", that is people who paid taxes and held property, should take part in politics. Ordinary people, especially the poor, illiterate and the working classes, had no voice in Parliament.
In any case, Britain itself was changing more rapidly than at any time in its history. Its population was growing fast, and the lives of the people were changing as quickly. The agricultural and industrial revolutions changed the ways in which they worked, both in the countryside and in the huge towns and new cities. They gained in some ways - more food, better clothing, more goods to buy. But they also suffered greatly in the filthy
Government of the people, for the people, by the people' was Abraham Lincoln's famous definition of democracy-1852. At the beginning of the 19th century the term democracy' was feared, as it was associated with the anarchy and violence of the French Revolution. During the 19th century a sea change occurred. Democracy acquired a momentum so that by 1865 Gladstone could say the country not only demands reform but expects it'. This essay will examine how far Britain had progressed towards full democracy.
The Parliamentary system in Britain in the 1830s had hardly changed since the sixteenth century. Britain was still one of the few representative governments in Europe with most others being ruled by an autocratic monarch. Voting was not seen as a universal right but as a privilege for the wealthiest class of society. The right to vote depended on three things: gender; only men over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. Property. In order to vote, an individual had to own property over a certain value. And finally location. Small boroughs were represented while large industrial towns were not. The idea that all adults should have the right to vote had little support in Parliament, which was dominated by the aristocratic landowners. They argued that only people with "a stake in the country", that is people who paid taxes and held property, should take part in politics. Ordinary people, especially the poor, illiterate and the working classes, had no voice in Parliament.
In any case, Britain itself was changing more rapidly than at any time in its history. Its population was growing fast, and the lives of the people were changing as quickly. The agricultural and industrial revolutions changed the ways in which they worked, both in the countryside and in the huge towns and new cities. They gained in some ways - more food, better clothing, more goods to buy. But they also suffered greatly in the filthy