Abstract
This chapter covers some of the most readily defined or quantifiable aspects of the political process in Britain — the legal and social composition of the electorate, the votes recorded at parliamentary elections and the social and party composition of the House of Commons and the Cabinet. It is important to stress that quantifiable statements about political institutions are far from representing the whole truth about them.
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Notes
See P. Gray and T. Corlett, The Electoral Register as a Sampling Frame (Central Office of Information 1950),
and P. Gray and F. A. Gee, Electoral Registration/or Parliamentary Elections (HMSO 1967).
For details on changes in franchise qualifications see the successive editions of Parker’s Election Agent and Returning Officer (Knight). See also B. Keith-Lucas, The English Local Government Franchise (Blackwell 1953),
D. E. Butler, The British Electoral System since 1918 (Oxford 1962), and the Representation of the People Acts of 1883, 1918, 1928, 1945, 1948, 1949 and 1969. A convenient summary of franchise qualifications at any given time is to be found in Whitaker’s Almanack or (up to 1939) in The Constitutional Tear Book.
H. L. Morris, Parliamentary Franchise Reform in England from 1885 to 1918 (New York 1921), and D. E. Butler, ‘The Redistribution of Seats’, Public Administration, Summer 1955, 125–47.
See also R. L. Leonard, Elections in Britain (Van Nostrand 1968).
Other sources of value in this area are: Richard Rose, Class and Party Divisions, University of Strathclyde Occasional Paper No. 1 (1969).
F. M. G. Willson, ‘The Routes of Entry of New Members of the British Cabinet 1868–1958’, Political Studies VII (Oct. 1959) 222–32. Leon Epstein, ‘British Class Consciousness and the Labour Party’, J. British Studies II (1962).
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© 1972 A. H. Halsey
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Butler, D. (1972). Electors and Elected. In: Halsey, A.H. (eds) Trends in British Society since 1900. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00778-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00778-3_8
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