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Henry Miller argues that petitioning could often engage more people than elections [15-minute read] Petitions were a complementary and at times alternative form of political participation to elections in the eighteenth century. Like the lively culture of election rituals, petitions enabled participation by people who were not eligible to vote in elections. Just as importantly […]
Penelope J. Corfield charts the steps on Britain’s long road to democracy [20-minute read] Democracy is not a flawless form of government. Nor do all democracies survive for all time. Nonetheless, representative democracies uphold the ideal notion of a rational politics, in which all citizens have an equal vote – all exercise their judgment in […]
Pamela Clemit uncovers Godwin’s report on two tightly fought metropolitan polls [15-minute read] The 1818 general election was the first to be held after the Napoleonic Wars. Wellington’s decisive victory at Waterloo in 1815 ended twenty-three years of almost uninterrupted war, and by 1817 Britain was experiencing a severe economic downturn. Mass unemployment, rising food […]
Read More… from The 1818 General Election: A Londoner’s Perspective
