To what extent do you agree that the 1911 parliament act was a Essay

To what extent do you agree that the 1911 parliament act was a siginifiacnt turning point for the political power of the aristocracy in the period 1830-1930 - Essay Example Enthused by French Revolution by-words like Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, British workers had started asking for their rights. The Great Reform Act of 1832 provided for the distribution of Parliamentary seats. It abolished many so called rotten or pocket boroughs. On the whole, it disenfranchised 56 boroughs, termed as rotten boroughs and most of them had no population. Then came the pocket boroughs in which aristocratic landlords controlled the number of representatives. Parliamentary representation of large towns and countries has been increased. Rural regions saw a reduction in their number of representatives. Scotland and Ireland saw increase in their representation. Earlier electorate had to have certain residential and financial requirements and those needs were lessoned. â€Å"On the whole, the Reform Bill of 1832 resulted in the transfer of political power from the landowning aristocrats to the middle class, and in the subordination of the House of Lords to the popular will,† http://www.thepotteries.org/chartism/reform_act.htm The abolished borough seats got redistributed to form new constituencies in smaller towns. Manchester and Birmingham got their representatives after this act. But the voting situation in the counties remained unaltered. Even to this day, historians had been unable to figure out if the threat of revolution of French revolution scale was imagined or real. House of Commons remained largely aristocratic, mainly because violence and expenses had been common during elections. â€Å"An unseen by-product of the Bill was that political parties were stronger than before and the party could usually impose ministers on the monarch,† http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A545195 This was done with a great feeling of victory, because elections were symbols of the will of people. House of Lords had no desire to pass the bill that would decrease their influence and power. But by then, rightly or wrongly they had become extremely