Democratizing from Within: British Elites and the Expansion of the Franchise

• In Event: Democracy and Revolution in Historical Perspective

Abstract

Why did the political class in Britain willingly extend the franchise to the masses in the nineteenth century rather than seeking to preserve the status quo? We revisit this question by studying how elite preferences over the franchise changed over this period. We apply ideal point estimation techniques to roll call votes on franchise reform in the House of Commons between 1826 and 1918 to estimate the preferences of MPs on this issue. Our preliminary results imply three main conclusions. First, the process of democratization in Britain was partisan rather than consensual: although the median MP generally came to support a more generous franchise with time, conservative MPs were almost united throughout in opposing almost any suffrage extension. Second, the pace of electoral reform was governed by two factors: the gradual leftward drift of Liberal MPs, which only accelerated from the mid-19th century onwards, and the conservatism of early Liberal leaders. Our initial analyses suggest that the process of social and economic modernization in Britain may explain much of the variation in legislator preferences we observe.

Authors

• Chitralekha Basu, University of Barcelona

• Carles Boix, Princeton University

• Sonia Gabriela Giurumescu, University of Barcelona

• Paulo Matos Serodio, University of Barcelona