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Political Empowerment and Political Integration: A Political Analysis on the Enlargement of Suffrage in the U.K. in 1832

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WANG Ke-yuan & QI Wei-ping

Online published: 2015-03-20

Abstract

Political empowerment is beneficial to the realization of the political integration of marginal population. Reform Act 1832 in the U.K. realized the political empowerment of the bourgeoisie in industry and commerce because of the following three reasons: first, the middle class, who “had money but no power”, and the lower class did not want to continue the same life as before; second, the ruling class could not rule as before; third, it was influenced by French Revolution and other international elements. The realization of the political integration of the bourgeoisie in industry and commerce due to Reform Act 1832 and the enlargement of suffrage, i.e., the political empowerment, was quite significant: first, in the short term, it relieved the sharp political conflict and maintained political stability at that time in the U.K.; second, in the long term, it promoted the political awareness of compromise and provided a paradigm for later peaceful reforms in the U.K.; third, it also explains why reformism dominates the history of the labor movement in the U.K. The political system reform in current China can learn much from the reforms in the U.K.

Cite this article

WANG Ke-yuan & QI Wei-ping . Political Empowerment and Political Integration: A Political Analysis on the Enlargement of Suffrage in the U.K. in 1832[J]. Journal of East China Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2015 , 47(2) : 39 -44 . DOI: 10.16382/ j.cnki.10005579.2015.02.005

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