2. A-Level Politics - Suffrage

Suffrage is the right/ability to do what?

Answer explanation

The right to vote is also referred to as the franchise.

As such extending the franchise refers to more people gaining the vote.

Who can and can't vote in general elections - organise the given options into the boxes.

Groups:

(a) Has the vote

,

(b) Can't Vote

• MPs

• Members of the royal family

• Homeless people

• Those guilty of electoral crimes

• Peers/Lords

• Under 18s

• People aged 18 and over

• Asylum seekers

• Unemployed

• Prisoners

Answer explanation

To vote in a UK Parliamentary election a person must be must:

•Be registered to vote in the constituency.

•Be of voting age – 18 years old on polling day.

•Be either a British, qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland.

•Not be subject to any legal incapacity to vote – Peers in the House of Lords, prisoners serving a prison sentence or having been convicted of committing certain electoral crimes.

How much of the adult male population had the vote in 1831?

• 1%

• 2%

• 5%

• 10%

• 15%

Answer explanation

In 1831 there were roughly 435,000 voters out of a population of 16,540,000.

Match the following acts of parliament to who they gave the vote to

• All men over 21 and women over 30

• Second Reform Act 1867

• Middle class

• Great Reform Act 1832

• Skilled workers

• Representation of the People Act 1918

• Agricultural workers

• Third Reform Act 1884

• All men and women over 21

• Representation of the People Act 1928

Answer explanation

•Reform Act 1832 – Put an end to rotten boroughs & extended voting rights to adult males who rented propertied land of a certain value. 1 in 7 males had voting rights.

•Reform Act 1867 – extended the franchise to men in urban areas who met a property qualification.

•Reform Act 1884 – Increased suffrage in the  countryside; 40% of males still couldn’t vote.

• Representation of the People Act 1918 – All men aged 21 and over were given the right to vote. Property restrictions lifted.

•Representation of the People Act 1928 – equal suffrage for women and men, with voting possible at 21 with no property restrictions.

In what year did another Representation of the People Act reduce the voting age to 18?

Should the voting age be lowered to 16?

• Yes

• No

What was the name of the working-class movement, founded in 1836, which campaigned for the average man to get the vote?

Answer explanation

The aim of the Chartists was to gain political rights and influence for the working classes.

Chartism got its name from the formal petition, or People’s Charter, that listed the six main aims of the movement. These were:

1.a vote for all men (over 21)

2.a secret ballot

3.no property qualification to become an MP

4.payment for MPs

5.electoral districts of equal size

6.annual elections for Parliament

Sort the given people and activities into the group which they are most associated with.

Groups:

(a) Suffragists

,

(b) Suffragettes

• Women's Social and Political Union

• Peaceful

• Millicent Fawcet

• Violence

• Hunger strikes

• Emmeline Pankhurst

• Petitioning

• Militant

• Lobbying

• National Union of Women's Suffrage