This made it very easy to intimidate voters into voting for a certain party/candidate. Candidates were even able to buy votes by offering food, drinks and even jobs in order to secure votes. In 1872 the secret ballot act was introduced. This mean that voters were able to cast their vote in secret polling booths and that the obvious fact of intimidation was eliminated, which in turn allowed voters to vote for who they truly believed would be the best candidate, which ultimately made a great step in making Britain a democracy. In 1883 ridiculous amounts of money were spent on election campaigns, but the
The British Colonies Although not quite as democratic as our lives, the British Colonies in the 18th century were a haven for liberty, democracy, and new ways of thinking, because they were considerably more advanced in comparison to the world around them. Equality is an essential part of a democracy, and even more democratic systems were appearing in the Colonies. To ensure equality everyone needs to have an equal say in the government. The only citizens allowed to vote were wealthy, adult, white males, but it’s estimated 50%-80% enjoyed the freedom, a considerable advantage to the 5% in Britain. Occupied with other matters, the British Empire wasn’t able to completely control the colonies and as a result they developed independent governments.
The election of the leader is very important part of political parties as people now vote more for a prime minster than governing party, for example conservative’s won over Labour because David Cameron was seen as more enthusiastic and inspirational then Gordon brown, where he was seen as dull and boring. This means individual members in Labour have a significant role and power in the party. However in the conservative the individual members don’t have as much power as the Labour members. The election of the party leader is different to the Labour party, the MP's select the two final candidates for leader through numerous votes, and the members only get to vote at the end of the process for party leader. This means that individual members don’t have the same amount of power than the MP's.
The government can be seen to be doing this through the vast amount of Council house’s that were built. This new approach was revolutionary compared to the previous Conservative government with Classical Economics where if Unemployment was low the government would not intervene; for the first time action was being down to prevent Unemployment. There were problems however, inflation had started to rise and by nationalising the Coal industry, mining became inefficient as there were now too many people working after the government overmanning of the mines.
The competition with other countries like America and Germany influenced our politicians to look deeper into the society and solve the social and economic issues that weakened our nation. First the government was concerned about the healthy workforce and better educated future generation therefore, the Liberals passed Acts for children. The first Act that was passed, was the School Meals Act in 1906 which allowed local authorities to provide needy children with a free daily meal. Local authorities were allowed to raise local tax by half a penny to help fund this scheme. This act was passed to improve health and ensure children were sufficiently educated.
In 1750 the total population was about 7 million. Over 65% of babies died during birth, but by 1900 the population had quadrupled to 37 million and only 15% of babies died during child birth. There are many reasons why this happened such as the vast improvement in health care, people marrying at a younger age so they have more time to have children, and farmers producing heathier and a larger variety of food. Many people called it an explosion in population rather than an increase in population this is because of how quickly the population increased, in the short amount of time. One of the reasons why the population exploded was because of the huge improvement in health care.
They also have a number of hereditary peers (although there will no longer be any hereditary peers appointed. There have been many calls to make the House of Lords into an elected chamber as people say that the fact that it is unelected reduces the democracy of the United Kingdom and that it is unfair to have an unelected as the peers may not actually represent the views of the people. However, there are also many arguments as to why the House of Lords should remain unelected. The first and possibly most convincing argument is the fact that an elected second chamber would actually be completely pointless as it would be exactly the same and the House of Commons. This means that instead of making the House of Lords elected, it would probably be more practical just to get rid of it all together and just have the House of Commons.
Men of all classes were allowed a vote, meaning that every layer of society had the opportunity to be represented. German citizens enjoyed civil liberties as a Rechtsstaat: the freedom of expression, of press, and of assembly. * * Disagree * The Bundesrat was flawed, as it could veto legislation if 14 members voted against a bill. Prussia had 17 of the 58 seats, and so this ensured Prussian dominance in the passing of legislation. The federal structure was unfair and undemocratic.
It is believed that the Second World War was actually the cause of many social reforms that were later formed, and the constituting of a welfare state. It was also due to the war that Labour was voted into power with a landslide victory, as the population believed that ‘post-war had to be better than pre-war,’ which caused people to vote for Labour in hope that they would deliver the peaceful revolution that they envisioned. However, some historians believe that the reason that Labour was so successful during their time in power is due to the achievements of the Liberals from 1906-1914. After the El Alamein battle in 1942, many people believed that Britain had a chance at winning the war and the government started to plan for a post-war social reconstruction. The most important plan made was the Beveridge Report in 1942.
This was passed partly because working class men had the vote. This convinced MPs they had to do something to improve their conditions in order to gain the votes they needed to get elected. Overall, although Chadwick’s work took a very long time to improve public health, it did form the basis of the reforms that the government pushed through. I don’t think these would have become enforcable by law if attitudes hadn’t changed thanks to more people having the vote and the discovery of germ theory. Chadwick could not have done it on his own; but I think the work he did was very important.