Taking the Leap: Voting, Rhetoric, and the Determinants of Electoral Reform
The article finds that the successful passage of the Second Reform Act in 1867 was due to the Conservative government's ability to narrow and focus parliamentary debate, rather than changes in party or constituency factors.
Why It Matters
The publication begins with a motivating question: Why did the Second Reform Act pass under a minority Conservative government in 1867 after failing under a majority Liberal government, and what factors determined the passage of electoral reform in the United Kingdom?
Its central contribution is to show that the article finds that the successful passage of the Second Reform Act in 1867 was due to the Conservative government's ability to narrow and focus parliamentary debate, rather than changes in party or constituency factors.
It matters because the findings connect institutional choices to the way authority, public responsibility, and political behavior are experienced in practice.
Key Findings
- Partisanship was the strongest predictor of parliamentary voting on reform, but did not explain the ultimate passage of the Second Reform Act.
- The scope and dimensionality of parliamentary debate was broader under the Liberals and more focused under the Conservatives.
- The reduction in the number of debated aspects under the Conservative government facilitated the passage of reform.
- Constituency-level factors had little influence on MPs' votes on reform.
Research Design
- Design
- Article
- Data
- Original dataset of 60 reform-related legislative votes in the UK House of Commons.; Digitized parliamentary debates (Hansard) from 1866 and 1867.
- Geography
- United Kingdom (House of Commons)
- Time Period
- 1866-1867
- Unit of Analysis
- Member of Parliament (MP) and parliamentary speech
- Methods
- Quantitative analysis of 60 reform-related legislative votes (divisions) in the House of Commons.; Quantitative text analysis (topic modeling) of over 3,200 parliamentary speeches related to reform.; Multivariate logistic regression to assess the influence of party and constituency factors on voting.
Full Abstract
This article analyzes why the Second Reform Act of 1867, which dramatically expanded the voting franchise in the United Kingdom, passed under a minority Conservative government after failing under a majority Liberal government. Using quantitative analysis of parliamentary debates and legislative votes, the authors argue that while partisanship was the most influential factor in parliamentary voting, it does not fully explain the passage of reform. Instead, they find that the narrowed scope and reduced dimensionality of debate under the Conservatives was crucial in enabling the passage of reform. The study provides new insights into party development and legislative behavior in nineteenth-century Britain.
Citation
Legislative Studies Quarterly 49 (4): 467-502.
- Venue
- Legislative Studies Quarterly
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 467-502
- DOI
- 10.1111/lsq.12055