Wider franchise and debates over suffrage (D&P 1.2)

Question 1

What is suffrage?

Answer 1

The ability or right to vote.

Question 2

What is franchise?

Answer 2

The ability or right to vote in public elections.

Question 3

Who can vote in current UK elections?

Answer 3

All citizens over 18.

Question 4

Who cannot vote in current UK elections?

Answer 4

• Under 18
• Prisoners

Question 5

How many men could vote in the early 19th century?

Answer 5

400,000

Question 6

What was the Great Reform Act of 1832?

Answer 6

• Created new seats in urban areas
• Allowed more people to vote, including farmers and smaller property holders
• Created a standard qualification for franchise in boroughs

Question 7

What did the electorate increase to, as a result of the Great Reform Act of 1832?

Answer 7

650,000 (around 5% of the adult population)

Question 8

What was the Representation of the People Act 1918?

Answer 8

• All men over 21 and women over 30 enfranchised

Question 9

What was the Representation of the People Act 1928?

Answer 9

• All men and women over 21; universal suffrage

Question 10

What was the Representation of the People Act 1969?

Answer 10

• All men and women over eighteen; reflecting changing attitudes in society

Question 11

Who were the suffragists, what were their methods, and who was their leader?

Answer 11

The suffragists, under the NUWSS with leader Fawcett, were mainly middle-class women with non-violent methods of persuasion, such as peaceful demonstrations, petitions and lobbying MPs.

Question 12

Who was Pankhurst, and what did she set up?

Answer 12

Pankhurst was a former suffragist, and she set up the WSPU, and were dubbed as ‘sufragettes’; the WSPU attracted both working and middle-class support.

Question 13

What type of methods did the suffragettes / WSPU use?

Answer 13

Much more militant methods; attracting publicity and putting pressure on Parliament through attacks on well-known institutions, and the disruption of political meetings/other prominent male-dominated activities.

Question 14

What happened in 1913 surrounding the suffragettes?

Answer 14

In 1913, suffragette Emily Davison threw herself under the king’s horse at the Epsom Derby.

Question 15

What are the arguments for extending the franchise by lowering the voting age?

Answer 15

• Citizenship lessons in school, and a youth parliament which exists
• Other legal rights (to leave school, start work, armed forces, sex, medical treatment)
• Would likely increase voter turnout (evident at 2014 Scottish independence referendum)
• Would give teenagers a say in issues which could affect them, like university tuition fees

Question 16

What are the arguments against extending the franchise by lowering the voting age?

Answer 16

• Young people could lack necessary life experience and maturity to vote
• Few take part in institutions like the youth parliament
• Most rights for 16 and 17 year olds are limited in practice
• Scottish referendum attracted unusually high levels of participation for all age groups
• Relatively few countries allow sixteen year olds to vote

Question 17

What does the radical campaigner Russell Brand argue in terms of compulsory voting?

Answer 17

Russell Brand argues that the decision not to engage at any level with the voting process can be a powerful political statement of disapproval.

Question 18

What are two groups that campaign for prison voting reform?

Answer 18

Howard League for Penal Reform
Prison Reform Trust
(+ Amnesty International)

Question 19

What happened in John Hirst v UK 2005?

Answer 19

• John Hirst, a man who spent 24 years in prison for manslaughter and additional sentences, began a legal campaign in the 1990s to restore a prisoner’s right to vote.
  > The High Court dismissed his challenge in 2001 but Hirst launched a new appeal under the HRA which was succcessfully upheld by the ECHR in 2005.
  > Since 2005, the UK have been incredibly resistant to prisoner reform, making small changes over the years.

Question 20

What are some arguments for giving prisoners the vote?

Answer 20

• Denial of the right to vote removes a sense of civic responsibility, making rehabilitation harder
• No evidence that loss of franchise acts as a deterrent
• Right to vote is fundamental, cannot be removed
• Removal of the vote makes a prisoner a non-person; further alienation from society
• ECHR ruled that the blanket ban on prisoners is a violation of the HRA.

Question 21

What are some arguments against giving prisoners the vote?

Answer 21

• Those who commit crime against society should lose the right to say how that soiety is run
• Threat of losing the right to vote prevents crime and enhances civic responsibility
• Giving criminals the right to say in how laws are made undermines the principle of justice