British Democracy: Votes for All!

What is a democracy? A democracy is… “A system of government by the whole population on all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representations.” So, in essence democracy is a government run by the people, for the people.

In this blog post I intend to unravel the campaigners of democracy in Britain, because democracy did not always come so easily and sometimes led to  violence and death. These campaigners led to the ability that everyone could have their say and vote in what goes on in their country, democracy means you can vote no matter your gender, religion, or race.

In Britain some notable campaigns for votes were the Chartists, the Suffragists, and the Suffragettes.

The Chartists were a working-class group of protestors who came about in 1836 and gained a high profile from 1838 – 1848, they aimed to gain political rights and more political recognition for the working classes. Chartists produced the People’s Charter demanding the government to provide further reform, specifically these six demands: Votes for all men, reorganised constituencies (to put voting areas for MPs into the hands of the many rather than the few.), abolition of the land qualification for MPs, payment for MPs (so that more classes could influence politics), yearly general elections and the secret ballot. Many of these demands were eventually met (Secret Ballot, payment for MPs and no land qualifications, universal suffrage for men as well as reorganised constituencies). However, the Chartists did become ridiculed because at the time the People’s Charter and public protests did not change the government’s ideals and instead the government ignored them, and no retaliation occurred on a violent scale as the Chartists were peaceful protestors. Rude?

Campaigning for women’s rights was typically seen as wrong, even by women themselves before actually reform was provided. In 1906 Queen Victoria described campaigns for women’s suffrage “a mad, wicked folly.” In 1870.

The suffragists and suffragettes came about at relatively the same time. The suffragists were formed in 1897 and the suffragists technically stood for the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies and were nicknamed the suffragists by newspapers. The suffragists were peaceful protestors who went about spreading leaflets, pamphlets, and petitioned bills in favour of female suffrage. The suffragists proved to many men across Britain of how women could run a campaign effectively and momentum. Unbelievably some men actually feared giving women the vote, the suffragists helped lessen this fear. However, the suffragists never gained such publicity as the suffragettes and so it is hard to determine their impact on the British public and government.

The Suffragettes actually broke away from the Suffragists in 1903 as they believed the suffragists weren’t getting anywhere with peaceful methods and thus created a militant campaign. “The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics.”- Emmeline Pankhurst (Founder of the Suffragettes) The suffragettes smashed windows, heckled MPs, tied themselves to railings and when caught a lot by the police many suffragettes went on hunger strikes and were force fed food to avoid political scandal of a suffragette death in prison. In my opinion the suffragettes were more determined to gain the women’s vote as in 1913 Emily Davidson stepped in front of the King’s Horse at the Epsom Derby to try and attach a suffragette scarf onto the horse for a publicity stunt and to make it look as if the King were in favour of votes for women. 

However, neither the suffragists or suffragettes achieved the vote before the outbreak of the First World War and as a result both campaigns helped with the war effort for the duration of the war either by encouraging others to take over jobs in munitions factories or in the public sectors. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act gave the vote to women over 30 who land. However, it was not until 1928 when women received the same voting rights as men – to vote at 21.

In Conclusion, without all these groups the people’s voice would have been heard at the time and therefore there would be little change in government practices. In this post I have looked at both peaceful and militant campaigns to show the impact it had on society at the time. Today many people including I look up to these people for their bravery and determination to influence votes for everyone in Britain. I hope you learned something new today about some British vote campaigners, let me know on twitter @ElectricallyE if you’d like to see another democracy blog post!
Thanks!