FREE ESSAY ON HOW DENOCRATIC A COUNTRY WAS BRITAIN BY 1914?

HOW DENOCRATIC A COUNTRY WAS BRITAIN BY 1914?

How democratic a country was Britain in 1914?
Ruth Dunlop
During the late 19th and early 20th Century, several acts were passed by Parliament in an
effort to make Britain more democratic. However, whether Britain was completely
democratic by 1914 is an issue for debate. In order to decide how democratic Britain was
we must first establish what a democracy is. The nine major factors which make a system
democratic involve providing a secret ballot to ensure privacy, holding regular elections
to make sure it is the government wanted by the people who are in power. A democratic
system has universal suffrage and similarly anyone can stand for election, making sure
everyone has their say in who represents them. Persons in charge should be elected
representatives of the people and the government should be by majority. Everyone should
have freedom of speech and protection in law as basic human rights. These are the factors
that constitute a democracy, but how many of these were fulfilled in 1914?
In 1884 the Franchise Act was passed. This meant the voting population was up to six
million. It does not bring universal suffrage but two thirds of all males in Britain were
now eligible to vote. This was a vast improvement from the early 19th Century when only
one in ten men had the vote. This statistic was improved to one in five after the 1832
Great Reform Act. The 1884 Act was therefore a major step towards democracy as it
provided suffrage to many more people than in previous years.
Prior to the 1872 Secret Ballot Act landlords and employers had a major influence over
many people. In some cases, if you voted against them (i.e. not for their favoured party)
you might lose your home or job. This pressure forced many people into voting differently
than they would have done without this pressure. The 1870 Government Committee of Enquiry
found that bribery and 'treating' were common and so the Secret Ballot Act was meant to
resolve this problem as well. Everyone now in theory had the freedom to vote for whoever
they wished to represent them, one of the features of democracy had been fulfilled. 
The Corrupt and Illegal Practice Act 1883 came about to further reduce corrupt practices
by prospective MPs. Violence had decreased since the Secret Ballot Act but politicians
could still buy votes. Along with this dishonesty, there were concerns over the accuracy
of election counts and so the Corrupt and Illegal practices Act was brought into action
in 1883. As a result, campaign expenditure fell by seventy five percent, although
violence was not banned in the Act, there was a drop after the introduction of this Act
in 1883. This meant that the public was less likely to be pressurised into voting one
way, thus improving freedom of speech rights. 
A further step towards democracy was taken in 1911 with the 1911 reforms. These Reforms
brought in payment of MPs. Previously only the well-off who had private funds could
afford to work for no wage as an MP. Now more people were given the opportunity to stand
for election. They would be paid a wage if they were elected making politics a viable
career for the first time for many and widening freedom of speech.
The 1911 Reforms also brought in another major step to democracy; the power to block
legislation was taken from the House of Lords. This was a great improvement as it was
previously undemocratic because the unelected House of Lords were able to block the work
of the elected House Commons.
However there were still many undemocratic features of the British Parliament. In 1914 no
women had the vote; it was not until 1918 that the first women received the vote. In
addition one third of males still did not have the vote as the right to vote was still
based on property. The men had to either own a house or be paying ?10 rent a month and
they also had to go through a complex process of registration in order to vote. Many did
not meet the requirements and so one third of the male population were excluded from
voting. As I mentioned earlier for a country to be classified democratic it must have
universal suffrage. When well over half of the population is ineligible to vote a country
can certainly not be classified democratic.
Despite constituency boundaries being reformed in the Second Reform Act and the Third
Reform Act, there were still problems over where some people could vote. In 1914, seven
percent of voters were eligible to vote in more than one constituency, and many were
unable to prove that they were eligible to vote anywhere. In the 1884-5 Third Reform Act,
the Conservatives under Lord Salisbury redistributed the seats in an effort to gain safe
votes at the next election, these practices were highly undemocratic and were not
completely resolved by 1914.
The Reform acts and laws passed between 1832 and 1914 did significantly improve the
British political system in terms of being a democracy. However as the Franchise was
still incomplete, the constituencies were unequal and the right to vote was still based
on property it cannot be said that by 1914 Britain was completely democratic. Although
many of the steps to turn Britain into a democracy had been taken the process was in no
way completed in 1914.