Changes in Franchise and Distribution of Seats

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who was made Whig PM in 1830?
Earl Grey
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when was the first reform bill originally presented and by who?
1831 by John Russell
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what did the first reform bill propose to do?
retain county franchise but introduce a uniform franchise of £10 householders in the boroughs
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what did the second draft of the bill propose to do?
extend county franchise past 40 shilling freeholders by enfranchising farmers renting at £50 per year
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what happened after the second draft was rejected?
violent riots across the country - lasted for 3 days in Bristol
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how did the HoL try to sabotage the final draft of the 1832 Reform Act and what did it lead to?
voted to postpone voting on redistribution of seats - led to the Days of May protests
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** how did the 1832 Reform Act expand the franchise?
male householders with property worth £10 were enfranchised for the first time and county franchise extended to £50 renters - electorate increased 55% in counties and 40% in boroughs
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** why was the impact of the 1832 Reform Act limited?
electors in boroughs had to have lived there for a year and pay poor rates so many men who moved often for work did not qualify - there was also less impact in areas with lower rents and skilled working-class did often not qualify
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what did Gladstone propose in 1866?
reducing borough franchise from £10 to £7 and extend county franchise to tenants paying £14+ per year rent
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how many voters would this add to the franchise?
200,000 in the boroughs and 170,000 in the counties
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* what did Disraeli propose for reform?
adding 227,000 voters to the borough franchise
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** what did the final version of the 1867 Reform Act do?
gave county franchise to those renting land worth £15 per year (previously £50) and extended the borough franchise to all householders who had lived there for at least a year and paid rates directly to their local authority
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** how much did the 1867 Reform Act expand the franchise by?
county electorate increased from 540,000 to 800,000 and borough franchise from 510,000 to 1.2 million - electorate almost doubled to 2 million
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** what was the impact of the 1867 Reform Act?
greatly increased the number of working-class voters (many constituencies had working-class as the majority), 1 in 3 men could now vote
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** how was the 1867 Reform Act limited?
still no universal male suffrage and the vote was still tied to property, 1 year residency excluded those who moved often, no party was willing to give the vote to the unskilled working-class
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* why was the 1885 Reform Act introduced?
Gladstone believed it would be too difficult to maintain the separate county and borough franchises
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** what did the 1885 Reform Act do?
replaced separate county and borough franchises with a universal qualification of male £10 householders and lodgers
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* why did the HoL try to block the bill?
a universal qualification would mean Conservatives would lose power from the counties
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** how much did the 1885 Reform Act increase the electorate by?
rose by 84% to 5.5 million - added around 2.5 million new voters
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** how was the 1885 Reform Act limited?
still focused on property ownership and so excluded sons of householders, servants, soldiers, women etc. and 40% of men could not vote still
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** what did the 1918 Reform Act do?
all men over 21 given the vote as well as soldiers 19-20, some women over 30 given the vote and could stand for parliament
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** how did the 1918 Reform Act expand the electorate?
around 5 million men added as well as 8 million women - tripled the electorate from 7 million to 21 million
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** how was the 1918 Reform Act limited?
women had to be a householder/married to one, university graduate, or rent property at £5 per year to vote - 20% of women over 30 could not vote
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* why did the government decide to introduce further reform in 1928?
voting habits had changed very little since 1918 so they decided it would be safe - and the Tories were determined to attract more female voters
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** what did the 1928 Reform Act do?
gave universal suffrage to women - added 5.2 million women to the electorate
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* what did Pitt propose in 1785 and why did it fail?
to abolish 36 corrupt boroughs and transfer their seats to counties while giving borough owners financial compensation - opposition was strong from MPs and the King
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** how was distribution of seats affected by the 1832 Reform Act?
56 boroughs with populations below 2,000 lost both MPs and 30 with populations between 2,000 and 4,000 lost one MP, 44 new borough seats were created mainly for industrial towns, 65 new county seats created to offset borough changes
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** why were new seats created in 1832?
to reflect economic interests rather than population - many counties remained under-represented
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* why were there changes to distribution of seats in 1867?
Disraeli feared extending the vote to the working-class would disadvantage the Conservatives
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** what changes to distribution of seats were made by the 1867 Reform Act?
boroughs with a population below 10,000 lost one or both MPs, 11 new constituencies created and number of MPs in large industrial towns increased from 2 to 3, English and Welsh counties given 25 more MPs
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** what was the effect of the changes to seats made in 1867?
added county seats led to strengthened landed interest which meant more power for the Conservatives in the long term
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** when was the Ballot Act and what did it do?
1872 - introduced the secret ballot
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** what was the impact of the 1872 Ballot Act?
made voters less open to corruption through intimidation - but some voters continued to be affected by landlords
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* why was the Corrupt Practices Act introduced?
many MPs had been scandalised due to corruption during the 1880s
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** when was the Corrupt Practices Act and what did it do?
1887 - limited the amount of money candidates were allowed to spend on campaigns to £710 for the first 2,000 voters and an additional £40 per every 1,000 voter past that, candidates had to also keep detailed records or their spending
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** what was the impact of the 1887 Corrupt Practices Act?
largely brought the culture of corruption to an end
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* how did Salisbury propose to change the constituencies and why?
establish single-member constituencies (instead of multi-member) - the growth of suburbs meant the Tories could gain extra electoral support
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** how did the 1885 Redistribution Act change the distribution of seats?
28 boroughs with populations over 50,000 remained as multi-member but all others became single-member - the number of seats in large cities now related to population
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

when was the first reform bill originally presented and by who?

Back

1831 by John Russell

Card 3

Front

what did the first reform bill propose to do?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

what did the second draft of the bill propose to do?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

what happened after the second draft was rejected?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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