The development of British democracy

This page is a voting-rights timeline.

Learn it in this order

• What democracy means
• Who could vote before reform
• The Chartists
• 1918
• 1928
• 1969

The idea

This page is a voting-rights timeline.

The clean memory chain is: few voters at first, Chartists campaigned, 1918 widened voting, 1928 made women and men equal, 1969 lowered the voting age to 18.

Test facts to know

• Democracy means adults have a say either directly or by choosing representatives.
• At the start of the 19th century only a small group of property-owning men over 21 could vote for MPs.
• The Chartists campaigned in the 1830s and 1840s for wider voting and parliamentary reform.
• Chartist demands included votes for every man, annual elections, equal electoral regions, secret ballots, the right for any man to stand as an MP and payment for MPs.
• By 1918 most Chartist reforms had been adopted.
• In 1918 women over 30 gained the parliamentary vote.
• In 1928 men and women over 21 had equal voting rights.
• In 1969 the voting age was lowered to 18 for men and women.

How questions may test it

• Define democracy in simple terms.
• Identify the Chartists and their reform aims.
• Distinguish 1918, 1928 and 1969 voting-rights milestones.
• Recognise franchise as the number of people with the right to vote.

Key terms

democracy, MPs, franchise, Chartists, secret ballot, 1918, 1928, 1969.