Abstract
The electoral system in Britain is the product of historical evolution and development. It began to be put on a democratic basis at the time of The Great Reform Act of 1832. This gave the right to vote to an additional half a million individuals who had not previously had it, taking the proportion of the enfranchised adult population to 5 per cent.
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Further reading
Alderman G., British Elections: Myth and Reality (London: Batsford, 1978).
Blackburn, R., The Electoral System in Britain (London: Macmillan, 1995).
Bogdanor, V., Power and the People (London: Victor Gollancz, 1997).
Bogdanor, V., The People and the Party System (London: CUP, 1981).
Bogdanor, V., What is Proportional Representation? (Oxford: Robertson, 1984).
Butler, D., British General Elections Since 1945 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989).
Butler, D. and Kavanagh, D., The British General Election of 1992 (London: Macmillan, 1992).
Denver, D., Elections and Voting Behaviour in Britain (London: Phillip Allen, 1989).
Finer, S.E. (ed.), Adversary Politics and Electoral Reform (London: Anthony Wigram, 1975), The Report of the Hansard Society Commission on Electoral Reform (London: Hansard Society, 1976).
King, A. (ed.), Britain at the Polls 1992 (London: Chatham House, 1993).
Lakeman, E., Power to Elect: The Case for Proportional Representation (London: Heinemann, 1982).
Norton, P., ‘Does Britain Need Proportional Representation?’, in Blackburn, R. (ed.), Constitutional Studies (London: Mansell, 1992).
Norton, P. and Gavin N.T. (eds), Britain Votes 1997 (Oxford: University Press, 1997).
Plant, R. The Plant Report on Electoral Reform (The Labour Party/Guardian Newspaper, 1991).
Rawlings, H.F., Law and the Electoral Process (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1988).
‘The Report of the Independent Commission on the Voting System’, CM 4090-1 (London: Stationery Office, 1998).
Website
BBC General Election 1997 http://www.bbc.co.uk/election97/
Copyright information
© 1999 F.N. Forman and N.D.J. Baldwin
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Forman, F.N., Baldwin, N.D.J. (1999). The electoral system. In: Mastering British Politics. Macmillan Master Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15045-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15045-8_3
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