For a country to be democratic there should be universal suffrage – all adults should have the right to vote. Britain was not very democratic in this respect in 1851, since only 1 in 7 men had the right to vote and no women could vote. However, a number of pieces of legislation were passed to extend the franchise. The 1867 Second Reform Act granted the vote to some working class men for the first time and meant that 1 in 3 men could vote. The 1884 Third Reform Act gave more respectable working class men the vote and meant that 2 out of every 3 were enfranchised.
Sir Patrick Hastings, the Attorney General, initially advised Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, to prosecute Campbell under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797. The case was handled dreadfully and Ramsay MacDonald faced a motion of no confidence in the House of Commons over the way he had dealt with the case. The opposition parties accused the minority Labour government of being under the influence of the Communist Party of Great Britain. In the debate that took place on 8th October, MacDonald gave an uninspiring account of events and when he lost the motion by 304 to 191 votes, he decided to resign and a general election was announced for Wednesday, 29th October,
Not many people would have thought that one reason may have been the countries national efficiency as a whole. Prior to their election the Boer war in south Africa had been taking place and the army found two thirds of men volunteering where unfit to take part due to a wide range of health problems from poor vision , bad eye sight and simply being too small. The government feared that the population might not be self sustainable for much longer and with the slow demise of the British empire , the government had a real problem on its hands that its population might become so weak the whole empire won’t be able to support itself. The rise of the German empire was becoming a threat as well and the possibility of war looked likely the government realised they’d have to intervene when the population was young as well and support them growing up to make them into stronger workers and soldiers or risk losing its colonies and
However in the 1951 elections Labour had polled 231,067 more votes from the general public than the Conservative party, however the Conservative party gained 26 more seats and squeezed into power. This was because the Liberals only put up 109 candidates, which in turn allowed ex-liberal voters to instead vote Conservative. CHARLIE One of the main reasons why the Conservative party lost was because of their past record. Certain events in their
Illinois has a population of 12 million people and 22 electoral votes. This means have one vote per every 550,000 voters. This is a very unbalanced form of voting, not capturing the popular vote at all. Durbin also points out that we use a direct popular election system for Senators, Governors, Congressmen, and mayors, but not for our President. The Founding Fathers knew during their time that people running for congress lived closer to the people voting for them, so at that time, the people voted directly for them but only for them.
The names of Members applying for a Bill are drawn in a ballot held at the beginning of the parliamentary year. The first seven ballot Bills get a day's debate. There are also Ten Minute Rule Bills which is a speech of ten minutes outlining a position. The majority of PMBs fail because the government doesn’t provide the support necessary for their successful passage through the House and it is also held on Fridays which reduces the attendance. This shows that backbencher serve little purpose, other than acting as lobby fodder.
Firstly the tsar did not help the peasants personally, but instead leave the burden to the prime ministers when they cannot rule like a democracy today. Also it leads to the growing economic problem which is a major factor in why the Romanov’s failed. The war came, the economy was shattered, and it could not last for 4 years of heavy warfare. A war in which it would not be over by Christmas as many wanted. But it wasn’t the prime ministers sole fault the agriculture failed, Russia did have four Dumas during this time and although their power was restricted, the tsar did come close to fall in power in 1905
Apart from the colonist being harassed with taxes, their trade with all parts of the world except Britain was another reason why the colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence. The illegal imposition of rules over their trade and production, commonly known as the Navigation Acts, which have been pressed on them for over a century and made worse by the Sugar Act and Townshend Acts was controlled once the Declaration of Independence was written and signed. Furthermore, the colonists were being deprived in many cases. The Boston Massacre was when a mob of 50 colonists gathered to protest against the officials. As fists and clubs began flying a soldier dropped dead, this forced the soldiers to fire, killing five civilians and wounding six.
The problems with the way in which the electoral system worked, meant that the majority people wanted change and therefore pushed for electoral reform. Many constituencies were left underrepresented; As Thomas Paine explains in his book “Right of Man”, cities with thousands were receiving the same representation in parliament as small villages “The town of Old Sarum, which contains not three houses, sends two members; and the town of Manchester, which contains upwards of sixty thousand souls, is not admitted to send any. Is there any principle in these things?” The new industrial towns were also facing troubles with the services in the areas, as there was not enough to of it to cover the rising population the fact that they couldn’t not then bring this issue up due to lack of representation also led to the need for reform. The lack of representation was not the only injustice people felt with the electoral system, suffrage was also corrupt, in many cases powerful landlords in control of small constituencies knows as pocket or nomination boroughs would manipulate inhabitants with such tactics as bribery, force or even their wealth, as usually they were part of nobility, to vote for who they wanted in power. Examples of this can be seen when the Earl of Lonsdale brought 14,000 miners and made then freemen outside their
Before any of these Acts were passed, the old system was corrupt in many ways, perhaps the biggest issue was the way members of parliament were elected. The two types of franchise were boroughs and counties. A lot of the boroughs at the time were considered, "Rotten Boroughs" where before the city was vastly populated, but over time for whatever reason the population had decreased, but there were still two MPs regardless of the size or population. An example of a borough such as this would be Old Sarum, where there were only three houses and a population of 15 people. As only a few of these could vote due to the varied voting qualification such as a man only being able to