Reform Acts

File:UK parliamentary franchise (1832-2010).pdf

In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, before 1832, fewer than one adult male in ten was eligible to vote in parliamentary elections.{{citation |last=Johnston |first=Neil |title=The History of the Parliamentary Franchise |date=2013 |url=http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/RP13-14 |publisher=House of Commons Library |access-date=16 March 2016}} Moreover, the franchise varied a great deal between England (which included Wales), where it was wider, and Scotland and Ireland, where it was narrower.{{Cite journal |last=Hoppen |first=K. Theodore |date=1985 |title=The Franchise And Electoral Politics in England And Ireland 1832-1885 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24416034 |journal=History |volume=70 |issue=229 |pages=202–217 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1985.tb01434.x |jstor=24416034 |issn=0018-2648}}{{Cite web |last1=History |first1=Scottish |last2=read |first2=Archaeology 10 min |title=Franchise reform in nineteenth century Scotland |url=https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/scottish-history-and-archaeology/the-right-to-vote-franchise-reform-in-19th-century-scotland/ |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=National Museums Scotland |language=en}} A few boroughs gave the vote to all male householders, but many parliamentary seats were under the control of a small group or sometimes a single rich aristocrat. Reforms had been proposed in the 18th century, both by radicals such as John Wilkes and by more conservative politicians such as William Pitt the Younger. However, there was strong opposition to reform, especially after the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789–1799). The cause was continued after 1792 by the London Corresponding Society.

Eventually, the parliamentary franchise was expanded and made more uniform through a series of Reform Acts beginning with the Great Reform Act in 1832.{{Cite book |last=Bedarida |first=Francois |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rfurGmZNuuwC&pg=PA142 |title=A Social History of England 1851–1990 |date=2013-06-17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-09732-4 |language=en}} These acts extended voting rights to previously disenfranchised citizens. Sources refer to up to six "Reform Acts",{{Cite web |last=Kitching |first=Paula |title=Political Reform: Lesson Plan 6: Overview |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/files/images/lesson_plans_6_overview.pdf |website=The History of Parliament |page=3 |quote=Create one of the following charts for each of the six Reform Acts}}{{Cite web |title=1969 Representation of the People Act |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/1969-rotp-act/1969-rotp-collections-/1969-sixth-reform-act-/ |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2021-01-02 |website=www.parliament.uk |language=en |quote="1969-sixth-reform-act"}}{{Cite web |title=Members of Parliament Chadderton |url=http://www.chadderton-historical-society.org.uk/members%20of%20parliament%20chadderton.htm |access-date=2021-01-02 |publisher=Chadderton Historical Society |quote=Act of 1969 (also known as the Sixth Reform Act)}} although the earlier three in 1832, 1867/68 and 1884, are better known by this name.{{refn|group=note|Various sources, books and texts commonly use this description.{{Cite book |last=Scott-Baumann |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zOMqCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT53 |title=Protest, Agitation and Parliamentary Reform in Britain 1780–1928 |date=2016-02-22 |publisher=Hodder Education |isbn=978-1-4718-3848-4 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Reekes |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ha_kCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA156 |title=Speeches that Changed Britain: Oratory in Birmingham |date=2015-09-19 |publisher=History West Midlands |isbn=978-1-905036-26-4 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last1=Doogan |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyPSc-oXxa0C&pg=PA71 |title=Changing life in Scotland and Britain: 1830s–1930s |last2=Girvan |first2=Edith |date=2004 |publisher=Heinemann |isbn=978-0-435-32692-0 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Christopher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L0To-MsFN-oC&pg=PA49 |title=Understanding A/S Level Government Politics |date=2003-12-05 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-6081-6 |language=en}}}} Some other acts related to electoral matters also became known as Reform Acts.{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=D. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMceBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Reform+Act+of+1885%22&pg=PA82 |title=Democracy and Reform 1815–1885 |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-88325-8 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Reid |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v9RbAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22Reform+Act+of+1885%22&pg=PA17 |title=We must fight it out! – And why? |date=1887 |pages=16–17 |language=en}}{{refn|group=note|For the narrative history see Llewellan Woodward (1961), The Age of Reform, 1815–1870, 2nd ed.; Asa Briggs (1959), The Age of Improvement 1783–1867.}}

The following Acts of Parliament are known as Reform Acts:

• Reform Act 1832 (often called the "Great Reform Act" or "First Reform Act"),{{Cite book|last=Evans|first=Eric J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A9cXnG6yW7YC&q=great+reform+act|title=The Great Reform Act of 1832|date=2008-01-28|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-81603-3|language=en}} which applied to England and Wales and gave representation to previously underrepresented urban areas and extended the qualifications for voting.
• Scottish Reform Act 1832, a similar reform applying to Scotland.
• Irish Reform Act 1832, a similar reform applying to Ireland.
• Reform Act 1867 (also called the "Second Reform Act"),{{cite book|first=Francis |last=Barrymore Smith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QV80AAAAIAAJ|title=The Making of the Second Reform Bill|year=1966|publisher = Cambridge University Press}} which widened the franchise and adjusted representation to be more equitable.
• Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1868, a similar reform applying to Scotland.
• Representation of the People (Ireland) Act 1868, a similar reform applying to Ireland.
• Ballot Act 1872 (sometimes called the "Reform Act 1872"), which introduced the secret ballot.
• Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883 (sometimes called the "Reform Act 1883"), which introduced campaign spending limits.
• Reform Act 1884 (also called the "Third Reform Act"),{{Cite book|last=Hayes|first=William A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iSAmAAAAMAAJ|title=The Background and Passage of the Third Reform Act|date=1982|publisher=Garland Pub.|isbn=978-0-8240-5156-3|language=en}} which allowed people in counties to vote on the same basis as those in towns. Home ownership was the only qualification.
• Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (sometimes called the "Reform Act 1885"), which split most multi-member constituencies into multiple single-member ones.
• Reform Act 1918 (also called the "Fourth Reform Act"),{{cite journal|last1=Dawson|first1=Michael|date=25 March 2010|title=Money and the real impact of the Fourth Reform Act|journal=The Historical Journal|volume=35|issue=2|pages=369–381|doi=10.1017/S0018246X0002584X|s2cid=155070834 }}{{Cite book|last=Tanner|first=Duncan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ec0NNAAACAAJ|title=The Parliamentary Electoral System, the Fourth Reform Act and the Rise of Labour in England and Wales|date=1983|language=en}} which abolished property qualifications for men and introduced limited female suffrage, for women over the age of 30.
• Reform Act 1928 (also called the "Fifth Reform Act"),{{Cite book|last1=Albjerg|first1=Victor Lincoln|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rwEgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22fifth+reform+act%22|title=Europe from 1914 to the Present|last2=Albjerg|first2=Esther Marguerite Hall|last3=Albjerg|first3=Marguerite Hall|date=1951|publisher=McGraw-Hill|pages=257|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Cole|first=G. D. H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uqp-DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22fifth+reform+act%22&pg=PT12|title=British Working Class Politics, 1832-1914|date=2018-12-07|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-429-82018-2|language=en}} which widened suffrage by giving women electoral equality with men.
• Reform Act 1969 (also called the "Sixth Reform Act"), which lowered the minimum voting age from 21 to 18.

There are many other electoral reform Acts that changed the electoral system in the United Kingdom.{{Refn|See the information box at the bottom of the article.|group=note}} Such legislation typically used "Representation of the People Act" as the short title, by which name the 1918, 1928 and other acts in the 20th century are better known.Alder and Syrett (2017). Constitutional and Administrative Law. 11th ed. Palgrave Law Masters. p. 294.Birch (1998). The British System of Government. 10th ed. Routledge. Taylor & Francis e-Library. 2006. [https://books.google.com/books?id=41Cyb3HrkqYC&pg=PA17 p. 17].See, for example, the definition in [https://books.google.com/books?id=4jJHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA7 section 8(1)] of the Representation of the People Act 1884, read with the definition of the Registration Acts in section 8(2). The title Representation of the People Act was adopted in other countries of, or formerly part of, the British Empire through the spread of the Westminster parliamentary system.{{Cite web |date=2013-12-02 |title=How the Westminster parliamentary system was exported around the world |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/how-the-westminster-parliamentary-system-was-exported-around-the-world |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=University of Cambridge |language=en}}{{cite book |author1=Julian Go |title=Constitutionalism and political reconstruction |date=2007 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004151741 |editor1-last=Arjomand |editor1-first=Saïd Amir |pages=92–94 |chapter=A Globalizing Constitutionalism?, Views from the Postcolony, 1945–2000 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYmmnYKEvE0C&pg=PA94}}{{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Douglas M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVuwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA571 |title=The Historical Foundations of World Order |last2=Reisman |first2=W. Michael |date=2008 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff |isbn=978-9047423935 |location=Leiden |page=571}} The Parliament of the United Kingdom played a "vanguard role" with worldwide influence on the spread of democracy, thus it is often known as "the mother of parliaments".

{{main|Reform Act 1832|Scottish Reform Act 1832|Irish Reform Act 1832}}

The Reform Act 1832 for England and Wales was the most controversial of the electoral reform acts passed by the Parliament. Similar acts were passed the same year for Scotland, and Ireland. They were put through Parliament by the Whigs. The acts reapportioned Parliament in a way fairer to the cities of the old industrial north, which had experienced tremendous growth. The act also did away with most of the "rotten" and "pocket" boroughs such as Old Sarum, which with only seven voters, all controlled by the local squire, was still sending two members to Parliament. This act re-apportioned representation in Parliament, thus making that body more accurately represent the citizens of the country geographically (although still with no party-proportional balance), but also gave the power of voting to those lower in the social and economic scale, for the act extended the right to vote (in the boroughs) to any long-term holders of tenements of at least £10 annual value, adding 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000. Annual value here refers to the income that the land could be expected to earn if let, in a year.{{Cite web |title=The Reform Act of 1832 |url=http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/refact/refact.htm |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=www.historyhome.co.uk}} As many as one man in five, though by some estimates still only one in seven, now had the right to vote.

The agitation preceding and following the First Reform Act made many people consider fundamental issues of society and politics. The bill allowed the middle classes to share power with the upper classes; for many conservatives, this was revolutionary. Some historians argue that this transfer of power achieved in Britain and Ireland what the French Revolution of 1848 eventually achieved in France.

Charles Dickens observed these events at first hand as a shorthand Parliamentary reporter. The novel Middlemarch, by Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) is set in the 1830s and mentions the struggle over the Reform Bills, though not as a major topic. Eliot's Felix Holt, the Radical, set in 1832, is a novel explicitly about the Great Reform Act.

{{main|Reform Act 1867}}

The Chartists campaigned from 1838 for a wider reform. The movement petered out in the 1850s, but achieved most of its demands in the longer run. Legislative bills were introduced by the Conservatives under the urging of the Liberals. The 1867/8 acts for England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland extended the right to vote still further down the class ladder. In England and Wales, the reforms added just short of a million voters, including many workingmen, which doubled the electorate to almost two million.

Like the Great Reform Act before it, the Second Reform Act also created major shock waves in contemporary British culture. In works such as Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy and John Ruskin's The Crown of Wild Olive, contemporary authors debated whether the shift of power would create democracy that would, in turn, destroy high culture.

{{main|Representation of the People Act 1884}}

A further Reform Bill was introduced in 1882 by the Liberals. The Conservative-dominated Lords passed it in 1884, opening the way for its royal proclamation, becoming the Third Reform Act. It was the first electoral reform act to apply to the United Kingdom as a whole. Only with this act did a majority of adult males gain the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Along with the Redistribution Act 1885, this tripled the electorate again, giving the vote to most agricultural labourers. (Women were still barred from voting.)

{{Main|Representation of the People Act 1918|Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928|Representation of the People Act 1969}}

By the end of the 19th century and in they early 20th century, voting was coming to be regarded as a right rather than the property of the privileged but the First World War delayed further reforms. After the War, women were granted voting rights with cross-party unanimity in the Act of 1918, the Fourth Reform Act, which enfranchised all men aged over 21 and women over 30. This last piece of gender discrimination was eliminated 10 years later by the Equal Franchise Act 1928, the Fifth Reform Act, passed by the Conservatives.

The voting age was lowered in 1969 by the Labour government in the Sixth Reform Act, making Britain the first major democratic nation to extend voting rights to all adults aged 18 or over.{{Cite journal |last1=Loughran |first1=Thomas |last2=Mycock |first2=Andrew |last3=Tonge |first3=Jonathan |date=2021-04-03 |title=A coming of age: how and why the UK became the first democracy to allow votes for 18-year-olds |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2021.1890589 |journal=Contemporary British History |language=en |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=284–313 |doi=10.1080/13619462.2021.1890589 |s2cid=233956982 |issn=1361-9462 |quote=Our starting point is placement of the 1969 Act within the context of previous reforms of the age of enfranchisement since the Great Reform Act of 1832.}}{{Cite web |last1=Loughran |first1=Thomas |last2=Mycock |first2=Andrew |last3=Tonge |first3=Jonathan |date=2021-11-03 |title=Lowering the voting age: three lessons from the 1969 Representation of the People's Act |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/lessons-from-the-1969-representation-of-the-peoples-act/ |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=British Politics and Policy at LSE |quote='Votes at 18' was the last major extension of the UK franchise and is therefore an important element of the history of UK democracy from the 1832 Great Reform Act onwards.}}{{Cite web |last=Bingham |first=Adrian |date=25 June 2019 |title='The last milestone' on the journey to full adult suffrage? 50 years of debates about the voting age |url=https://www.historyandpolicy.org/index.php/policy-papers/papers/the-last-milestone-on-the-journey-to-full-adult-suffrage |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=History & Policy}}

{{Further|Electoral reform#United Kingdom}}

The periodic redrawing of constituency boundaries is now dealt with by a permanent Boundary Commission in each part of the United Kingdom, rather than a Reform Act.{{Cite web|last=Johnston|first=Neil|date=2021-02-01|title=Constituency boundary reviews and the number of MPs|url=https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05929/|language=en-GB}}

Some people in Britain, mostly associated with the Liberal Democrats political party, have called for a new "Great Reform Act" to introduce electoral changes they favour. These would include lowering the minimum voting age to 16 and introducing proportional representation, which are also supported by the Green Party of England and Wales.{{Cite news|last=Stone|first=Greg|date=2009-07-30|title=It's time for the next Great Reform Act|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jul/30/liberal-democrats-electoral-reform|access-date=2021-01-02|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news|last=Toynbee|first=Polly|date=2014-01-31|title=Giving 16-year-olds the vote can be Labour's Great Reform Act|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/31/giving-16-year-olds-vote-reform-bribery-based-democracy|access-date=2021-01-02|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|date=2015-05-06|title=A new Great Reform Act is needed to limit the absurdities of our constitution|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/new-great-reform-act-needed-limit-absurdities-our-constitution-10230596.html|access-date=2021-01-02|website=The Independent|language=en}}{{cite web |url= https://livingroom.greenparty.org.uk/2023/02/03/proportional-representation/ |title= Electoral Reform: Is Proportional Representation The Solution? |date= 3 February 2023 |website= Green Party of England and Wales |access-date= 29 April 2023}}

• Elections in the United Kingdom § History
• Corrupt practices
• Electoral Reform Society
• History of the constitution of the United Kingdom
• Parliament in the Making
• Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918
• Suffrage § United Kingdom
• Universal suffrage § Dates by country
• Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Americana|wstitle=Reform Bills|inline=1}}

• Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. "Why did the West extend the franchise? Democracy, inequality, and growth in historical perspective." Quarterly Journal of Economics 115.4 (2000): 1167–1199. [https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/64369/whydidwestextend00acem2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y online]
• Aidt, Toke S., and Raphaël Franck. "How to get the snowball rolling and extend the franchise: voting on the Great Reform Act of 1832." Public Choice 155 (2013): 229–250. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11127-011-9911-y online]
• Berlinski, Samuel, and Torun Dewan. "The political consequences of franchise extension: Evidence from the second reform act." Quarterly Journal of Political Science 6.34 (2011): 329–376. [http://personal.lse.ac.uk/dewanta/downloads/Franchise.pdf online]
• Brown, Richard. "The Reform Acts". in Church and State in Modern Britain 1700-1850 (Routledge. 1991). Pages [https://books.google.com/books?id=ewWKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 220] to 227.
• Briggs, Asa England in The Age of Improvement, 1783-1867 (2nd ed. 1979) [https://archive.org/details/englandinageofim0000asab/page/n8/mode/1up online]
• Cannon, John. Parliamentary Reform 1640-1832 (Cambridge University Press, 1973) [https://books.google.com/books?id=C0M4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PR5 online].
• Conacher. The Emergence of British Parliamentary Democracy in the Nineteenth Century: The Passing of the Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884-1885. (Major Issues in History). (John Wiley and Sons. 1971) [https://archive.org/details/emergenceofbriti00jbco/page/n3/mode/2up online] also at [https://books.google.com/books?id=7nEHAAAAMAAJ Google Books].
• Evans, Eric J. Parliamentary reform in Britain, c. 1770-1918 (Longman, 1999)
• Himmelfarb, Gertrude. "The politics of democracy: the English Reform Act of 1867." Journal of British Studies 6.1 (1966): 97–138. doi:10.1086/38552
• Pugh, Martin. The evolution of the British electoral system, 1832-1987 (Historical Association, 1988) [https://archive.org/details/evolutionofbriti0000pugh online]
• Vernon, James. Politics and the people : a study in English political culture, c. 1815-1867 (Cambridge University Press, 1993) [https://archive.org/details/politicspeoplest0000vern/page/n8/mode/1up online]
• Whitfield, Bob. The Extension of the franchise, 1832-1931 (Heinemann, 2001) [https://archive.org/details/extensionoffranc0000whit online] .
• Woodward, Llewellan. The Age of Reform, 1815–1870 (2nd ed. 1962) [https://archive.org/details/ageofreform181510000sirl online]

• [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/getting_vote.htm " Citizenship" from The National Archives]
• [http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/diary/historylesson.htm The Electoral Reform Society]
• [http://www.victorianweb.org/history/reform.html The Reform Act Crisis] on the Victorian Web
• [http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/refact/refact.htm Text of the 1832 Act]
• [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/PR1832.htm Spartacus School Net on 1832], [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/PR1867.htm 1867], [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/PR1884.htm 1884], and [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/PRparliament.htm Parliamentary reform in general]

{{UK electoral reform|state=expanded}}

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