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26 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1911)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry26 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume XXVI ] POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY BARRIERS AGAINST DEMOCRACY IN THE BRITISH ELECTORAL SYSTEM PLURAL voting, university representation, non-payment of members of Parliament and the official expenses thrown upon candidates for the House of Commons are the four most obvious anomalies in the British electoral system. Each of these anomalies has existed for at least three centuries. Each grew out of the gradual but continuous warping of the electoral system-originally quite democratic-that went on between the fifteenth century and the Reform Act of 1832. Each had its origin in the eager desire of either the Crown or the landed aristocracy to control elections to the House of Commons. Since 1832 it has been repeatedly conceded that all these four warpings of the original electoral system are anomalies; and all would have been swept away years ago, had it not been that they stood as barriers against a democratic House of Com- mons and, as such, were vigorously defended by Whigs and Conservatives in the House of Commons as well as in the House of Lords. The Whigs easily dominated Liberal admin- trations until after the split in the Liberal party arising out of Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1886. Whig dominance of Liberal cabinets was not of the past until the Campbell-Banner- man administration was formed at the end of 1905. Then the Whigs were not sufficiently strong or numerous to secure again their control over the Liberal administration, because between 1886 and 1905 all the more powerful Whigs had gravitated to I March, rgir [Number r