Political stabilization and reform

The revolution of 1688 had created a political system that rested upon the principles of inclusion and exclusion. Yet precisely because those categories required constant affirmation, negotiation and recognition, this system was never free of instability. The boundaries between exclusion and inclusion needed to be continually patrolled and policed. By the early nineteenth century a complex of political and social tensions stretched thin the credibility of those boundaries. This was a process that flowed as much from divisions within elite politics as from the challenges mounted from nonelite politics. The issue that confronted the political world by 1830, then, was how to stabilize the political system. Specifically, how were the frontiers of inclusion and exclusion to be redrawn, political democracy staved off and trust restored in the existing structures of political authority? How was it possible to conduct viable politics in the arena defined by the existing principles of inclusion and exclusion? This was not a new dilemma, but it remained the dominant, recurrent predicament within which politics was enacted from the 1830s to the 1880s. The opening gambit of the political establishment was the reform bill of 1832.

The reform bill of 1832 remains one of the landmarks of nineteenth century British history. The narrative to explain it that was constructed at the time of its passing continues to cast a long shadow. In broad terms, the bill was trumpeted as yet another example of the sense and sensibilities of the traditional Whig aristocracy, newly returned to power in 1830. It was the first step in the democratization of politics. The worst anomalies of the old unreformed system were removed.