Discuss how democratic Britain became during the period 1830-1918 Britain underwent significant social and political changes from 1850-1918 and these changes resulted in the government and country becoming more democratic. The years before the first world war saw a huge change in Britain. The country became much more modernized and urbanized and this change in Britain put a strain on old aristocratic constitution. It was a time when citizens were becoming increasingly aware of the lack of democracy within the country. This essay plans to analyse and explain the extension of the franchise from 1830 and to asses whether Britain was fully democratic by 1918.
The number of people unemployed rose by five million from the start of the great depression1929 to when Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Some people were still in works but they were paid low wages and worked short time works. The number of unemployment left many people hungry as they had no work so they couldn’t get the money to buy food. Also many people became homeless. The great depression gave huge boost to the extremist parties as the German people started to blame the government to the depression and therefore lost confidence in them.
John majors government came into office after the downfall of Margret Thatcher, which ultimately created divisions within the party. Not only did the party suffer from the internal conflict but also faced the problems of the recession after the ‘Lawson boom’. In order to stabilise the economy he joined the ERM getting a good deal but ultimately resulting in ‘black Wednesday’ causing Major to raise interest rates to 15%. This was political suicide and he soon lost the support of the press we had once relied so much on to get re-elected in 1992. The housing market also plummeted leading to negative equity, which the majority of the working class could not afford resulting in the repossession of their houses combined with the drastic increase in unemployment Britain was in a mess.
Jackson and the Second Bank of the United States. The war of 1812 left our economy in turmoil. The banks had started printing more bank notes than they could back to pay off the debt accumulated during the war. This only made things worse by causing high inflation. Also in the wake of the war our national credit score had dropped dramatically and was close to a record low making it nearly impossible to finance necessary operations of the Federal Government.
Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital’, is an article written by Robert D. Putnam, in which he proposes that America is suffering a loss of its social capital, and this loss has had a hugely negative impact on society as a whole. Social Capital is a term used to describe the connections, networks and relations within society and the intensity of those connections. Putnam encourages the idea that as interaction within community declines so does the social capital of that community. Putnam puts forward the facts of decline in ‘civic engagements’ and the networks they produce; America had about a quarter less voters in the 1990’s than it had in 1960’s, there are declining numbers attending town meeting, PTA events, involving themselves
Even though the stock market began to regain some of its losses, by the end of 1930, it just was not enough and American truly entered what is called the Great Depression. Before Black Tuesday, the economy had been stagnant for months prior, and the effects of the market crash were compounded due to the use of margin, and the general lack of market regulations at that time. The use of margin means people had borrowed funds (Doc K). This led to a spiral of falling prices. With significantly reduced wealth, spending decline, banks failed and on top of this drought conditions contributed to a lack of good crops.
The failure of the Weimar Republic to fix the increasingly pressing problems of Germany consequently contributed massively to their downfall, as it demonstrated their weakness. By the early 1930s the German people were resentful of their government because of the economic issues caused by the Great Depression and Wall Street Crash. For example industrial production in 1930 had dropped by 13% of what it was in 1928, and by 1932 it had dropped by 42%. This combined with the fact many Germans still had the effects of the economic problems of the early 1920s fresh in their minds caused declining support for moderate parties and therefore the Republic. This can evidently be seen from the election results as in 1928 the SPD had 29.8% of the vote and by 1932 this had dropped to 20.4%.
Also, many experts say that it fell because of the lack of heart the people had to the Empire, the rise of Christianity, it was too immense to govern and protect, the decline of the economy and jobs, the army being made up of mostly foreigners, and outside invaders. Thus, one can say that the Empire collapsed more internally than externally. The first reason why the Western Roman Empire fell was because the people that lived in it had a lack of heart in the Empire. People didn’t believe the Empire was worth saving anymore. As Strayer, Gatzke, and Harbison state in their textbook The Course of Civilization states “The basic trouble was that very few inhabitants of the empire believed that the old civilization was worth saving… the overwhelming majority of the population had been systematically excluded from political responsibilities.
As Professor of Political Science, Victor Navasky said, “There is no cartoon to the editor.” (Navasky) The frustration that comes from this dilemma is most likely what infuriated so many world leaders over the years. However, with a population becoming more and more literate political cartoons are started to become a dying art form; they do not have the same effect on the masses as they once did. The rising literacy rate, paired with falling newspaper sales, have caused this decline as the political satirist turn their talents to a whole new digitalized
In recent years, government mistrust has become rampant. In the past, approximately 75% of Americans trusted the government most or all of the time. However, this number has sharply decreased. In the Gallop’s annual governance poll conducted in September of 2011, only 19% of people were satisfied with the way the country was being governed. First, it is important to recognize that these polls suggest that Americans are displeased with the people in charge of our government, not the institution as a whole.