Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T10:23:30.636Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Party Realignment in Britain, 1900-1925: A Preliminary Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Hugh W. Stephens
Hugh W. Stephens*
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is doubtful that any other period of comparable length in British history witnessed as many profound changes in politics as did the first quarter of the twentieth century. To mention only some of the more important examples, voter turnout rose from about 21% to 76% of the adult population; the party system was transformed when Labour displaced the Liberals as the major party of the left; legislative power was profoundly altered by the Parliament Act of 1911 which deprived the Lords of the right to veto permanently bills passed by the Commons; the social base of parlimentary recruitment expanded to include more members from lower middle- and working-class backgrounds; the disruptive influence of Irish self-government was removed from political life; and public concern shifted from issues related to Empire and wider access to parliamentary politics to domestic matters of a distributional nature. Under the cumulative impact of these changes, particularly in the party system, British politics in essence ceased to be traditional, and became modern.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , Winter 1982, pp. 35 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Apter, D. (1965) The Politics of Modernization. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Bealey, F. and Pelling, H. (1958) Labor and Politics. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Blewett, N. (1972) The Peers, the Parties, and the People: the British General Elections of 1910. Toronto: Toronto Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Burnham, W. D. (1970) Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Butler, D. and Stokes, D. (1976) Political Change in Britain. New York: St. Martin’s.Google Scholar
Campbell, B. and Trilling, L. (1980) Realignments in American Politics: Toward a Theory. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, P. (1971) Lancashire and the New Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Constitutional Yearbook (1901, 1907, 1920, 1923, 1925) Brighton: Harvester.Google Scholar
Cook, C. (1975) The Age of Alignment: Electoral Politics in Britain, 1922-29. Toronto: Toronto Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Cornford, J. (1970) “Aggregate election data and British party alignments, 1885-1910,” in Allardt, E. and Rokkan, S. (eds.) Mass Politics. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Deutsch, K. (1953) Nationalism and Social Communication. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Douglas, R. (1971) The History of the Liberal Party: 1885-1970. Teaneck, NJ: Sidgwick and Jackson.Google Scholar
Emy, H. V. (1973) Liberals, Radicals, and Social Politics, 1892-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Glaser, J. (1958) “English nonconformity and the decline of liberalism.” Amer. Historical Rev. 63 (October): 352–363.Google Scholar
Great Britain, House of Commons, Parliamentary Paper (1918) “Return, showing each parliamentary constituency.” XIX 138.Google Scholar
Great Britain, House of Commons. Parliamentary Paper (1912-1913) “Census of England and Wales 1911.” CVII, Vol. III.Google Scholar
Great Britain, House of Commons. Parliamentary Paper (1891) “Census of Scotland.” Cmd. 6755.Google Scholar
Hechter, M. (1975) Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Frings in British National Development, 1536-1966. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, S. (1968) Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
James, R. R. (1976) The British Revolution. London: Hamish Hamilton.Google Scholar
Key, V. O. (1955) “A theory of critical elections.” J. of Politics 17 (February): 3–18.Google Scholar
Kinnear, M. (1973) The Fall of Lloyd George. Toronto: Toronto Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kinnear, M. (1968) The British Voter: An Atlas and a Survey since 1885. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Koss, S. (1975) Nonconformity and Modern British Politics. Hamden, CT: Archon.Google Scholar
Laporte, T. (1975) Organized Social Complexity: Challenge to Politics and Policy. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, T. O. (1975) “Lib-Labs and ‘unforgivable electoral generosity.’” Institute of Historical Research. Bulletin 48: 256–259.Google Scholar
Marquand, D. (1977) Ramsay MacDonald. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Matthew, H.G.C., McKibbin, R., and Kay, J. A. (1976) “The franchise factor in the rise of the labor party.” English Historical Rev. 91 (October): 723–753.Google Scholar
Miller, W. L. (1977) Electoral Dynamics in Britain Since 1918. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mitchell, B. and Boem, K. (1966) British Parliamentary Election Results: 1950-1964. London: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, K. (1970) Wales in British Politics, 1868-1922. Cardiff: Univ. of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Pelling, H. (1967) Social Geography of British Elections. New York: St. Martin’s.Google Scholar
Pelling, H. and Bealey, F. (1958) Labor and Politics, 1900-06. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Poirier, P. (1958) The Advent of the British Labor Party. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. (1960) The Semi-Sovereign People. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Sundquist, J. (1973) Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States. Washington, DC: Brookings.Google Scholar
Wald, K. (1978) “Class and the vote before the first world war.” British J. of Pol. Sci. 8 (October): 441–457.Google Scholar
Wald, K. (1977) “The rise of class-based voting in London.” Comparative Politics 9 (January): 219–229.Google Scholar
Wilson, G. and Wilson, M. (1945) The Analysis of Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, T. The Downfall of the Liberal Party. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar