Lesson 2 _Democracy in Britain

Democracy in
Britain

Democratic Reforms Without Revolution

Key Question

How did Britain avoid the revolutionary wave and conflicts that engulfed Europe during the 19th Century?

In the 19th and Early 20th Century, the British Empire Faced Significant Problems

In the 1600s, Britain's Civil War and Glorious Revolution established a limited Constitutional Monarchy under William and Mary. This set the stage for the rapid growth of British industrialization, economic and military power.

By the late1800s, Britain was indeed a worldwide Empire covering almost 25% of all the land mass on Earth and governing over 400 million people (23% of the worlds population).

Yet despite their successes abroad, Britain still had problems at home that needed to be addressed. The government was an oligarchy run by the House of Lords and wealthy members of the House of Commons. More importantly, structural problems within the government, social issues emerging from the industrial revolution and rapid urbanization were approaching a crisis stage where revolution at home might become a reality.

Britain of the 19^th century faced similar problems to those we face today, including income disparity and poor living conditions.

In his book Sybil, Benjamin Disraeli describes the tremendous gap between the living conditions of the rich and the poor. In one scene of the books, a man boasts to a stranger that Queen Victoria “reigns over the greatest nation that ever existed.”

“Which nation?” asks one of the strangers, “for she reigns over two... Two nations; between whom there is no [communication] and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were ... inhabitants of different planets.

What are these “two nations,” Egremont asks. “The Rich and the Poor,” the stranger replies.

​Democratic Reforms in Britain

​Examples of poor living conditions in Britain

Benjamin Disraeli and other British leaders worked to bridge the gap between the “two nations” by expanding democratic rights and introducing social reforms to end deeply rooted inequalities. Unlike some of its neighbors in Europe, Britain generally achieved change through reform rather than revolution.

​Britain Achieves Reform Without a Revolution

In 1815, Britain was a limited constitutional monarchy with a parliament and two political parties, but the system wasn’t necessarily fair or democratic.

• Parliament was made up of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, but the House of Lords were hereditary nobles and high-ranking clergy in the Church of England. They had the right to veto any bill passed by the House of Commons.

• Less than five percent of the people could vote.

• Old laws banned Catholics and non-Anglican Protestants from voting or serving in Parliament.

Government Reforms:
Fixing the Problems of the Parliament

During the Industrial Revolution, centers of population shifted. Some rural towns lost so many people that they had few or no voters. Yet local landowners in these rotten boroughs still sent members to Parliament.

At the same time, populous new industrial cities like Manchester and Birmingham had no seats in Parliament because they had not existed as population centers in earlier times. The Reform Act of 1832 was designed to correct these inequities.

Britain also had a Problem with Rotten Boroughs

​The urbanization of England leads to Rotten Boroughs - districts with votes in Parliament but few voters/citizens.

The Reform Act of 1832

In the 1830s, as revolts flared in France and elsewhere, Whigs and Tories were battling over a bill to reform Parliament.   The Whig Party largely represented middle-class and business interests. The Tory Party spoke for nobles, landowners, and others whose interests and income were rooted in agriculture. In the streets, supporters of reform chanted, “The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill!” Their shouts seemed to echo the cries of revolutionaries on the continent. Parliament finally passed the Great Reform Act in 1832. This act:

• Redistributed seats in the House of Commons, giving representation to large towns and cities and eliminating rotten boroughs.

• Enlarged the electorate, the body of people allowed to vote, by granting suffrage to more men but it kept a property requirement for voting.

The Reform Act of 1832 did not bring full democracy, but it did give a greater political voice to middle-class men. Land-owning nobles, however, remained a powerful force in the government and in the economy.

Not everyone was satisfied with the reform bill. The Chartists, who stood for working class interests, brought forward demands for demanded universal male suffrage, annual parliamentary elections, salaries for members of Parliament, and a secret ballot, which would allow people to cast their votes without announcing them publicly. Although defeated, their goals were achieved by later Parliaments.

​The Chartist Movement

From 1837 to 1901, the great symbol in British life was Queen Victoria. Her reign was the longest in British history. Although she exercised little real political power, she set the tone for what is now called the Victorian age.

Victoria came to embody the values of her age.

• Duty

• Thrift

• Honesty

• Hard Work

• Respectability.

She embraced a strict code of morals and manners and, although she outranked her husband Albert, she treated him with the devotion a dutiful wife was expected to have for her husband.

​The Victorian Age

Under Victoria, the British middle class—and growing numbers of the working class—felt great confidence in the future. That confidence grew as Britain expanded its already huge empire. Victoria, the empress of India and ruler of some 300 million subjects around the world, became a revered symbol of British might.

Although a monarch, she supported the middle and lower class’s attempts at reform. The queen herself commented that the lower classes “earn their bread and riches so deservedly that they cannot and ought not to be kept back.”

As the Victorian era went on, reformers continued the push toward greater social and economic justice.

​

​The British Empire at its Peak Under Queen Victoria

The old political parties regrouped under new leadership. Benjamin Disraeli forged the Tories into the modern Conservative Party. The Whigs, led by William Gladstone, evolved into the Liberal Party.

Between 1868 and 1880, as the majority in Parliament swung between the two parties, Gladstone and Disraeli alternated as prime ministers.

Both fought for important reforms.

​

​In the 1860s, a New Era Dawned in British Politics

​

• Gave the vote to many working-class men, the new law almost doubled the size of the electorate.

• By the century’s end Britain transformed itself from a constitutional monarchy to a parliamentary democracy.

• The House of Lords was stripped of VETO power and eventually became a ceremonial body without power.

During this era, Britain also made significant economic and social reforms including the establishment of free trade, the abolition of slavery, and criminal justice reforms that reduced the punishments of many petty crimes.

​The Reforms of 1867

​Parliamentary Democracy = a form of government in which the executive leaders, usually a prime minister and cabinet, are chosen by and responsible to the legislature (parliament), and are also members of it.

One of Britain's biggest issues was the working conditions of the Industrial revolution. Especially the almost unbearable working conditions of the coal mines where deadly accidents were all too common.

Long hours, low pay, dangerous conditions, and an absence of any type of insurance to protect workers made the life of working-class people a living nightmare by today’s standards.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, British politicians tried to remedy those conditions.

​

​Britain Reforms the Workplace Making is Safer

• 1842: Mine owners were forbidden to employ women or children under age 10.

• 1847: Laws passed that limited women and children to a 10-hour day.

• Later the government also regulated many safety conditions in factories and mines—and sent inspectors to see that the laws were enforced. Other laws set minimum wages and maximum hours of work.

• Trade unions were made legal in 1825 but it remained illegal to go on strike until later in the century.

• Education reforms and laws regarding public health also improved living conditions

​

British Reforms

Across the Western World, women struggled against strong opposition for the right to vote and women themselves were divided on the issue. Queen Victoria called the women’s suffrage struggle “mad, wicked folly.” Even women in favor of suffrage disagreed about how best to achieve it.

Although many women took what was considered at the time to be “radical action”, British women didn’t get the right to vote until 1918. That was for women over 30 years old … younger women had to wait another decade for the right to vote.

​

Women's Suffrage in England

​When some jailed English suffragists went on hunger strikes, prison officials force-fed them to keep them alive. The suffragists used posters like this to gain popular support for their cause.

​Suffrage means the "right to vote"

Throughout the 1800s, Britain faced the ever-present “Irish question.”

The English had begun conquering Ireland in the 1100s. In the 1600s, the English under Oliver Cromwell persecuted and massacred many Irish people. They also sold several hundred thousand Irish into slavery on British sugar plantations in the Caribbean.

During this same period, the English and Scottish began to colonize Ireland, taking possession of much of the best farmland.

​

The Irish Question

The Irish bitterly resented English and Scottish settlers, especially absentee landlords who owned large estates but did not live on them.

Many Irish peasants lived in desperate poverty while paying high rent to landlords living in England. In addition, the Irish, most of whom were Catholic, had to pay tithes to support the Church of England.

Under these conditions, resistance and rebellion were common.​

The Irish Never Accepted English Rule

The Irish Potato Famine or Great Hunger

Between 1845-52 Ireland suffered a period of starvation, disease, and emigration that became known as the Great Famine. The potato crop, upon which a third of Ireland's population depended on food, was infected by a disease destroying the crop. There had been crop failures before but during the famine it failed across the whole country, and recurred over several years. And throughout this period large quantities of food continued to be exported, mainly to Great Britain during the blight.

The Government of Britain did respond to the crisis. Given that a high proportion of Irish MPs were landowners, or their sons, Parliament was fully aware of the situation. Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister, purchased £100,000 of Indian corn (sweetcorn) in the United States and arranged for its transport to Cork. He believed that by selling this cheaply the price of food would be kept low. Meanwhile, a relief commission raised funds and distributed food, and a board of works initiated road building to keep unemployment down. Initially, the government's policies met with some success but in 1846 government repealed the Corn Laws, tariffs on grain that kept the price of bread artificially high, and the famine worsened.

The Irish Potato Famine or Great Hunger

A new government led by Lord John Russell did not handle the famine effectively either. Public works projects achieved little. Then Sir Charles Trevelyan, who was in charge of the relief effort, limited government aid based on laissez-faire principles and an evangelical belief that “the judgement of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson”. This action caused even more suffering.

Assessments of how many people died during the Great Famine, either of disease or hunger, stands at around 1 million. This, along with the emigration of 1 – 2 million more Irish seeking to escape the famine, significantly reduced the population of Ireland. It also had a revolutionary impact on Irish politics, becoming a defining moment for Irish nationalists.

The persecution, maltreatment, and discrimination by the British helped ignite a wave of Irish Nationalism.

Like other countries dominated by a “foreign” government, Irish Nationalists wanted home rule or self-governance.
They also wanted an end to the “tithe” and the power of absentee landlords.

While the British made some changes, such as ending the ban on Irish Catholics holding office, unfair rent, and restrictions on the Irish language, even partial self-governance would escape the Irish until the early 20^th century.

​

Irish Nationalism

Multiple Choice

Democracy and Reform in Britain

How does Benjamin Disraeli describe Britain in his book Sybil?

• A nation struggling with class conflicts and inequality

• A nation on the verge of civil war

• A nation turning towards socialism

• A quasi-democratic nation on the verge of revolution between the rich and the poor

• A nation that epitomized Karl Marx's ideas about communism and world-wide class revolution

Multiple Choice

Democracy and Reform in Britain

This group comprised of hereditary nobility and clergy had veto power over government legislation until they were stripped of that power in the later half of the 19th century.

• House of Commons

• House of Lords

• House of Representatives

• The Tribunal of Nobles

• The Prime Ministers and Cabinet

Multiple Select

Democracy and Reform in Britain

Select all that apply: In the early 1800s, which of the following was an obstacle to full democracy in Britain?

• Less that 5% of the population could vote

• Catholics and Non-Anglican's were banned from voting or serving in Parliament

• Women were not allowed to vote

• There were too many poor and impoverished citizens

• The British used their military to suppress any resistance to their absolute rule of the empire.

Multiple Choice

Democracy and Reform in Britain

How does the United States prevent the incidence of so-called Rotten Boroughs?

• Reapportionment of seats in the House of Representatives among the 50 states following the decennial census.

• Shifting of Senate seats based on the most recent mid-term elections

• Offering lower interest rates to homebuyers in districts with smaller populations

• Allowing illegal aliens to replace citizens in elections to even out the numbers.

Categorize

Options (4)

Middle Class

Business interests

Nobles

Landowners

Democracy and Reform in Britain

Place the supporters beneath each political party

Whig Party

Tory Party

Multiple Select

Democracy and Reform in Britain

Select all that apply: Which of the following was a part of the Reform Act of 1832

• Redistribution of seats to eliminate Rotten Boroughs

• Enlarging the number of voters (electorate)

• Maintaining the requirement to own property to vote

• Eliminating the House of Lords

• Incorporating the Secret Ballot into the British voting process

Multiple Choice

Democracy and Reform in Britain

One of the most important things the Chartist Movement demanded was a Secret Ballot. A Secret Ballot allows people to cast their votes in private without revealing who they voted for.

Why is a secret ballot be important today?

• Allows people to avoid public criticism or retaliation for their votes

• Allows people to cheat and vote more that once

• Gives people the option of changing their mind after voting

• None of these options are correct.

Multiple Choice

Democracy and Reform in Britain

A form of government in which the Executive Branch leaders, usually a Prime Minister and Cabinet, are chosen by the legislature from their own members. The Executive is responsible to the legislature for the execution of their duties.

• Parliamentary Democracy

• Democratic Republic

• Democracy

• Constitutional Monarchy

• Constitutional Republic

Multiple Choice

Democracy and Reform in Britain

When Britain finally granted women's suffrage in 1918, what limitation did they place on women voting?

• Minimum age of 30

• Cannot be Catholic or any non-Anglican religion

• Cannot be an illegal alien

• No gingers

Open Ended

Democracy and Reform in Britain

How did Britain avoid the revolutions and conflict that spread across Europe in the mid - 19th Century? [Make sure to give examples of how the British were able to solve their issues without violence or revolution]