Laying the foundations of the modern voting system: the representation of the people act 1918

• Autores: Robert Blackburn
• Localización: Parliamentary history, ISSN-e 1750-0206, Vol. 30, Nº. 1 (February), 2011 (Ejemplar dedicado a: A century of constitutional reform / Philip Norton (ed. lit.)), págs. 33-52
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article studies the preparation, passage, and consequences of the Representation of the People Act 1918. Commonly known as the fourth and last of the �Reform Acts� starting in 1832, that transformed the politics of Great Britain into a parliamentary democracy, this major piece of constitutional legislation laid the foundations for the country's present-day voting and electoral system. Most famous for introducing universal adult suffrage and the women's vote, it initiated a large number of new concepts and practices in elections, including making residency in a constituency the basis of the right to vote, whilst institutionalising the first-past-the-post method of election instead of proportional representation (PR). As a political and constitutional process for reform, it was virtually unique in dealing with a range of principles and issues that were deeply controversial, yet ones that were debated and enacted in a spirit of concord amongst parliamentarians about the overriding need for civil reconstruction in the post-war era.