Politics - A Wider Franchise and Debates over Suffrage
- Created by: jessiehs12345
- Created on: 05-04-18 12:34
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- A Wider Franchise and Debates over Suffrage
- Franchise/suffrage = the ability, or right, to vote in public elections
- Those who cannot vote in the UK
- Under 18s
- EU citizens (apart from those from the Irish Republic), although they can vote in local elections
- Members of the H of L
- Prisoners (though this has been challenged by the European Court of Human Rights but so far ignored by government)
- People barred (for 5 years) for being corrupt or illegal electoral practice
- People compulsorily detained in a psychiatric hospital
- Key Milestones in the Widening of the Franchise - from the late Middle Ages to the early 19th century
- Two types of constituency: counties and boroughs (towns). Varied considerably in size. Counties - had to own freehold property worth at least 40 shillings/£2. Boroughs - ability to vote varied. Some allowed any freemen, others depended on property ownership or the payment of some kind of local tax
- Distribution of parliamentary seats did not keep up with economic and population growth meaning tiny boroughs seats but new ones had no representation at all
- Plural voting allowed wealthy men to vote more than once
- Women were excluded from voting
- The Great Reform Act of 1832
- Abolished separate representation of underpopulated boroughs and created seats for new urban areas, like Manchester
- Granted votes to other people such as tenant farmers and smaller property holders
- Created a standard qualification for boroughs: now applied to all male householders living in properties who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more
- Electorate increased to about 5% of the adult population
- Post-Great Reform Act - vote extended further in stages. Wasn't until 1918 that right to vote wasn't based on property ownership and became a citizen's right (except this still didn't apply to women on the same basis as men)
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