Elections and society

Abstract

Both contemporaries and historians have accorded to parliamentary elections the premier position in the field of political activity. An election was an occasion for a symbolic act of identification where, at least until 1872, the voter had to stand up and be counted. It provided an opportunity for the assertion of class, interest or group loyalty. In some situations the vote was merely an expression of a deferential social context in which the voter responded to the influence of an élite which made the initial political choice; in others it was a conscious decision in support of a particular political viewpoint. Many historians would see parliamentary elections as the essence of political history. The timing of elections gives some perspective to this view. In the quarter-century before the second Reform Act there were only five general elections. Indeed between 1832 and 1880 there were only a dozen. By-elections increased the opportunities for voting; but can we really accept that the casting of a dozen votes over half a century constituted the total political experience of the average citizen? Clearly parliamentary elections did not represent the voter’s total political diet, yet it was generally agreed that the parliamentary election was the cream of the political milk. It was a cohesive force retaining loyalty for other levels of political activity. Conversely a parliamentary contest could reflect or instigate a schism in the local political system. The parliamentary election was but one strand, albeit a prominent one, in the local political structure.

‘One of the great evils of a general election is the “democratisation” it causes.’ E. H. Greg to G. Melly, 28 April 1859