To what extent had democracy been achieved in Britain by 1900?
For any country to be called democratic, certain conditions have to exist. First of all, universal suffrage has to exist which provides fairness and equality ensuring that members of every social class has the right to vote. Democracy as Abraham Lincoln said is, “the government of the people, by the people, for the people”. By 1900 many acts had been put in place which helped Britain to achieve Democracy. The acts gave better off working class men who lived in the countryside the right to vote on the same terms as the boroughs. However by 1900 social and economic factors still contributed to Britain not becoming fully democratic until later in the 20th century. As in the 1900s …show more content…
At that time, Britain was divided into borough and county constituencies. A constituency is an area of Britain in which the voters elect one MP and a borough constituency really meant a town or part of a city. By giving the vote to men owning property above a certain value and (male) lodgers pay6ing rent above £10 a year, the vote was extended to skilled working men who could afford to live in a property above that value. The effect of this reform nationally was to double the number of men who were entitled to vote and in the growing towns the increase was even greater – for example, the number of voters in Glasgow increased from 18,000 to 47,000. The reform Act also made representation in parliament fairer. Boroughs which had become depopulated lost their right to send MPs to parliaments, while growing towns gained the right to send more. This attempted to make the political representation fairer which is an important part of democracy. However all men did not receive the vote until 1918 so although this act extended the franchise Britain did not fully achieve democracy by 1900 as only two out of three men could vote and no women could vote either so this was not a fair representation of the people as around half the population was missed from the election as they did not have the right to vote causing Britain not to be called a democracy by
For any country to be called democratic, certain conditions have to exist. First of all, universal suffrage has to exist which provides fairness and equality ensuring that members of every social class has the right to vote. Democracy as Abraham Lincoln said is, “the government of the people, by the people, for the people”. By 1900 many acts had been put in place which helped Britain to achieve Democracy. The acts gave better off working class men who lived in the countryside the right to vote on the same terms as the boroughs. However by 1900 social and economic factors still contributed to Britain not becoming fully democratic until later in the 20th century. As in the 1900s …show more content…
At that time, Britain was divided into borough and county constituencies. A constituency is an area of Britain in which the voters elect one MP and a borough constituency really meant a town or part of a city. By giving the vote to men owning property above a certain value and (male) lodgers pay6ing rent above £10 a year, the vote was extended to skilled working men who could afford to live in a property above that value. The effect of this reform nationally was to double the number of men who were entitled to vote and in the growing towns the increase was even greater – for example, the number of voters in Glasgow increased from 18,000 to 47,000. The reform Act also made representation in parliament fairer. Boroughs which had become depopulated lost their right to send MPs to parliaments, while growing towns gained the right to send more. This attempted to make the political representation fairer which is an important part of democracy. However all men did not receive the vote until 1918 so although this act extended the franchise Britain did not fully achieve democracy by 1900 as only two out of three men could vote and no women could vote either so this was not a fair representation of the people as around half the population was missed from the election as they did not have the right to vote causing Britain not to be called a democracy by