230156 Who forms part of the political nation? British reform movements (S) (WiSe 2015/2016)

In Britain, frequently dubbed 'the motherland of democracy', the franchise was tied to property and masculinity up until 1918, making Parliament highly unrepresentative. Pressure for political reform began to be brought to bear in the final third of the 18th century. This course will chart the constitutional changes that Britain witnessed in response to these pressures, between 1832, the year the First Reform Act was passed, and 1928, the year in which women gained the franchise on the same terms as men and Britain finally became a democracy. The analysis will focus on the changes in the definition of the political nation around class, gender and ethnicity.

Bibliography

John Belchem: Popular Radicalism in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Basingstoke, 1996
Hans Setzer: Wahlsystem und Parteienentwicklung in England. Wege zur Demokratisierung der Institutionen 1832 bis 1948, Frankfurt am Main, 1973.