British Democratic State as of 1914

A detailed Summary of British Democratic State as of 1914

How democratic a country was Britain as of 1914? During the late 19th and early 20th Century, several acts were passed by Parliament in an effort to make Britain more democratic. However, whether Britain was completely democratic by 1914 is an issue for debate. In order to decide how democratic Britain was we must first establish what a democracy is. The nine major factors which make a system democratic involve providing a secret ballot to ensure privacy, holding regular elections to make sure it is the government wanted by the people who are in power. A democratic system has universal suffrage and similarly anyone can stand for election, making sure everyone has their say in who represents them. Persons in charge should be elected representatives of the people and the government should be by majority. Everyone should have freedom of speech and protection in law as basic human rights. These are the factors that constitute a democracy, but how many of these were fulfilled in 1!

In 1884 the Franchise Act was passed. This meant the voting population was up to six million. It does not bring universal suffrage but two thirds of all males in Britain were now eligible to vote. This was a vast improvement from the early 19th Cent

The Reform acts and laws passed between 1832 and 1914 did significantly improve the British political system in terms of being a democracy. However as the Franchise was still incomplete, the constituencies were unequal and the right to vote was still based on property it cannot be said that by 1914 Britain was completely democratic. Although many of the steps to turn Britain into a democracy had been taken the process was in no way completed in 1914.

Despite constituency boundaries being reformed in the Second Reform Act and the Third Reform Act, there were still problems over where some people could vote. In 1914, seven percent of voters were eligible to vote in more than one constituency, and many were unable to prove that they were eligible to vote anywhere. In the 1884-5 Third Reform Act, the Conservatives under Lord Salisbury redistributed the seats in an effort to gain safe votes at the next election, these practices were highly undemocratic and were not completely resolved by 1914.

A further step towards democracy was taken in 1911 with the 1911 reforms. These Reforms brought in payment of MPs. Previously only the well-off who had private funds could afford to work for no wage as an MP. Now more people were given the opportunity to stand for election. They would be paid a wage if they were elected making politics

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Approximate Word count = 901
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History