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Small Town Politics in Mid‐Victorian Britain
Author(s) -
Jaggard Edwin
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/j.0018-2648.2004.00285.x
Subject(s) - politics , house of commons , loyalty , electoral reform , commons , political science , electoral politics , political economy , sociology , public administration , law , parliament , democracy
Electoral politics in the small towns of England and Wales between the First (1832) and Second (1867) Reform Acts have been dismissed by historians as corrupt or controlled by influential patrons. This article uses qualitative and quantitative data to reveal that voters in these small boroughs demonstrated a surprising degree of party loyalty, with the politics of influence less obvious that those of principle. The article concludes that these towns, which elected almost one‐third of the membership of the House of Commons, exhibited a far more vibrant political milieu than was previously thought.