The English Path to Democracy

The Not-So-Great Reform Act and the "Leap in the Dark"

So, having looked at the battle to get it passed, was the so-called Great Reform Act worth all the fuss? We'll take a look at that and we'll look at the Second Reform Act of 1867, what Benjamin Disraeli described as a "leap in the dark".

The Fight For Reform

I spent last week looking at how the aristocratic elite were doing all they could to prevent any breech on their monopoly of power. Well, much as they tried to keep the door tightly closed. That bew breed of  'urban aristocracy' that Asa Briggs had talked about were banging against the door and they’re not going to go away.

The English Path to Democracy

Enough of the French, I say, and their crazy revolutions. Let’s look at how the English did things in the nineteenth century. “Reform in order to conserve” was the English way: give a little when you have to in order to keep what’s most important. You’ll see what I mean, in this episode, and as the next few episodes unfold.

The Paris Commune of 1871

Through the English, American and French revolutions and those of 1848, we have been looking at the history of what we call liberal representative democracy, by which today, all adult men and women, periodically have the opportunity to vote for people to represent us, make laws and govern over us. And, actually, we began this journey back in ancient Athens, with Athenian or direct democracy. Well, today, we are going to look at the first attempt at a worker’s democracy because we’re going to look at the Paris Commune of 1871.

The Counter-Revolutions of 1848

I said last week that the French weren’t finished with their revolution but when things flared up again, the counter-revolution kicked in. It seemed that everything the workers of Paris had fought for, the democracy that they thought would usher in more social reform, was not going to happen. Instead, things were being taken away from them. And what happened in France, would happen across Europe.