In order to answer the question: to what extent was Britain a democracy by 1900, we have to first define what a democracy actually is. Features of democracy are: when all adults are able to vote for the party of their choice without fear of

corruption, when there is a secret ballot which ensured fair elections, when all parts of the country are represented equally, when each person in different classes of society are allowed their own representatives and when there are a variety of

parties which follow differing ideals. In looking at each of these aspects of democracy we can decide whether or not Britain was a true democracy in 1900.

In 1850, only 4% of the entire population of Britain could vote to control who sat in The House of Lords. These were mainly people who owned their own homes or land. This meant that only the upper classes were getting to choose who was

representing the country in important matters. The existence of corruption also complicated matters further as people knew that despite the fact that they were voting for the leader of their choice, there were still people being paid to vote for the

party bribing them. This also lead to the overrepresentation o

eligible to vote whether they chose to or not. Because of the Second Reform Act of 1867 the percentage of people in English boroughs increased by 134% but in the smaller counties the increase was a smaller 46%. Despite being eligible to vote

many men still chose not to. This was because registering to vote required that they would have to take the day off work without pay and since this was undesirable for many men, they chose to refrain from voting. Even then women and

There were changes to the franchise however between 1850 and 1900 which did indeed lead towards democracy. The percentage of men who could vote increased from 33% to 66%, a massive jump. After 1884, every single adult male was

could be elected to be an MP. This made perfect sense at the time because those who wished to become MPs were being paid very little so another income or wage was necessary. This meant that only a few working men could enter the party as

which had been occurring and this percentage had included men as well as woman. The goverment wa salso still represented mainly by the middle and upper classes and these were the people who had money and weren't as concerned as

there were few people who wanted to leave their reasonable paid jobs to become MPs. Also the only parties which were available at the time were the Whigs and the Tories who only represented the middle and upper classes which casts

wo

Some common words found in the essay are:
Liberals MP, Britain Democracy, Scotland MP, Reform Act, Whigs Tories, House Lords, Ballot Act, MP MPs, South England, upper classes, democracy 1900, vote party, britain democracy 1900, eligible vote chose, secret ballot, britain democracy, ineligible vote, britain becoming, believe britain becoming, middle upper, middle upper classes, classes represented, able vote party, entirely democratic,
Approximate Word count = 943
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)