Changing political attitudes (influence of other countries) Flashcards
Topic sentence
Other historians argue that changing political attitudes and examples from other countries influenced the Government to introduce legislation.
Evidence 1
Other nations such as New Zealand and USA had extended the franchise and Britain could not be seen falling behind.
Analysis 1
This increased democracy in Britain as put pressure on Britain to become more democratic. Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone the played a key role in passing democratising legislation between 1880 -85.
Evidence 2
Additionally, attitude towards women began to change and in the 1870s and 1880s, women were accepted into local governments and school boards.
Analysis 2
This increased democracy in Britain as this and women’s work in the First World War convinced many that they had earned the right to participate in the electoral process nationally.
Counter analysis
However, this factor is limited because some historians argue that many countries e.g France did not enfranchise women until after Britain, so Britain were not actually falling behind.
Evaluation
To evaluate, it is clear that Britain’s growth in democracy is partly due to examples of other countries and changing political attitudes, this is reflected in the fact that the electorate grew and attitudes to women began to change as they were becoming more involved in politics. Aditionally, political revolutions such as the American Civil War (1865) took place all across the world and this built up fear that they may happen in Britain too. Britain decided that it was better to give up some control and pass legislation to help the working classes etc to prevent these revolutions from happening. However, it is more convincing that industrialisation and urbanisation was the most important reason for the growth of democracy because this attracted different groups to come together to campaign for reform.
