Electoral System 1780 Flashcards
What is a Constituency?
an area in which the country was divided for election purposes
What is a Borough?
A town or small city that had once been given special privileges by the royal charter
What were the 2 types of constituency?
County (rural) - 82 seats
Borough (country towns & ports) - 403 seats
what are some examples of types of boroughs?
- Pocket borough
- Rotten borough
- Treasury borough
- Burgage borough
- Scot & Lot borough
- Open borough
What was a pocket borough?
a consituency that was in control of a particular patron (e.g. landowner)
- usually tory owned
What was a rotten borough?
a borough with few or no voters / constituents but still returned at least 1 MP to parliament
What was a treasury borough?
a borough under the governments control
What was a burgage borough?
a borough where only men who owned various properties could vote
what was a scot & lot borough?
a borough where only male local tax payers could vote
what was a open borough?
a borough where anyone present at the election could vote
what was the estimated amount of people able to vote in England & Wales?
214,000
