The 1832 Reform Act was a major step towards the realization of a fully representative governing body. It was this driving factor, in the form of unjust voting requirements and unbalanced parliament seat distribution, that led many of the labor class to demand that the laws be changed. Before the 1832 Reform Act was passed only one in ten men could vote, while wealthier counties would receive many more seats in Parliament than poorer, more populated ones. Though the lower class had wanted these

After the reform was passed the voting population doubled from 350,000 in 1831 to 717,000 in 1832. The 1832 Reform Act was a victory for the middle class while the labor class was once again ignored, but for the middle class it was not a complete victory either. The fact is that after 1832 only one in five adult men could vote, though this was better than in the previous years, but it shows a massive population that had no say in public affairs. Those middle class men that did have a vote also had landlords who pressured their tenants to vote a certain way; a tactic that proved to be very effective. Further diluting the middle class vote was the provision in the new reform that required voters to pay at least £10 in rent a year to acquire voting privileges. That provision divided England’s new voters geographically. In the North, rent was less expensive and many middle class workers did not meet the requirement, while in the South rent for the middle class would commonly be over that amount. For the upper middle class an additional vote was given under the stipulation that the tenant’s rent must exceed £50 per year. The 1832 Reform Act also expanded suffrage by the redistribution of voting districts. Eighty-six boroughs lost at least one seat and forty-two newly formed boroughs gained at least one seat with more than half of those gaining two seats.

The process of democratization in Britain was one that was relatively quick. Within the course of a century the voting balance of power for public officials was tipped from the top one percent to the masses of a male population. These reforms set a precedent for many other nations to follow in the coming years preceding World War I. In England, these measures have led to one of the most stable and least politically disobedient societies in the world.

The Second Reform Act consisted of many new suffrage laws. The first law was created a household franchise. This effected the urban areas more than the rural ones simply because there were many more households in the urban sectors. The second of the laws abolished the property qualifications and created a lodgers franchise. Voters no longer had to meet a minimum monetary requirement to vote, as was the case in the First Reform Act. These acts increased the male voting population from 1.3 million voters to 2.45 million voters. Another way to look at it is that now one in three adult males could vote, as opposed to the previous one in five. Another beneficial reform to come o

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