This is a study of popular political behaviour both before and after the Great Reform Act of 1832, the impact of which has long divided historians, some heralding it as the dawn of a new age, others dismissing it as an irrelevance. Professor Phillips has built up an extensive computer database from all available sources of information about early nineteenth-century electors - including for example poll books, tax rolls, and parish records - thus creating a uniquely comprehensive set of files containing dozens of variables about thousands of voters that permit cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Using these techniques, he has undertaken the first systematic consideration of electoral behaviour in eight diverse English boroughs. He explores the nature of parliamentary representation in the pre-Reform era and assesses the effects of the 1832 Act, and shows that the unreformed electoral system permitted extensive popular political participation. Nevertheless, the Reform Act politicized the electorate to a degree not possible or even imaginable before, and his book establishes the role of Reform as the catalyst which shaped a new pattern of politics and launched the struggle for parliamentary democracy in Britain.

Comprehensive yet accessible, this classic text, now in its thirteenth edition follows the evolution of political thought over 300 years. Organized chronologically, this text examines each ideology within a political, historical, economic, and social context. In addition to a thorough updating of examples and data, here's what you'll find in the new edition: Analyses of President Trump's rollback of Obamacare, trade war with China, and changes to immigration, taxation, and environmental policy. Conservative justifications for supply-side economics and liberal rationale for drug legalization and "trigger-word" bans. Brexit's effects on the Scottish independence movement. Resurgence of feminist protest, including the Me Too movement, alongside anarchist protest, following Trump's election, including groups like Black Bloc and Antifa. China's rising environmental and social problems, including unrest among its heavily controlled Uighur population. Cuba's transfer of power from the Castros to President Diaz-Canel, and their fraught rapprochement with the U.S. Russia's disinformation campaigns, and alternating brinksmanship and detente between Trump and North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong-un. The ascent of the Alt-right in the U.S., and white supremacist influence on parties in the U.S. and Europe. The continuing salience of Islamism, the teetering Iran deal, and ongoing degeneration of the Arab Spring to the Islamist Winter.

Comprehensive yet accessible, this classic text, now in its thirteenth edition follows the evolution of political thought over 300 years. Organized chronologically, this text examines each ideology within a political, historical, economic, and social context. In addition to a thorough updating of examples and data, here’s what you’ll find in the new edition:

Analyses of President Trump’s rollback of Obamacare, trade war with China, and changes to immigration, taxation, and environmental policy.

Conservative justifications for supply-side economics and liberal rationale for drug legalization and "trigger-word" bans.

Brexit’s effects on the Scottish independence movement.

Resurgence of feminist protest, including the Me Too movement, alongside anarchist protest, following Trump’s election, including groups like Black Bloc and Antifa.

China’s rising environmental and social problems, including unrest among its heavily controlled Uighur population.

Cuba’s transfer of power from the Castros to President Díaz-Canel, and their fraught rapprochement with the U.S.

Russia’s disinformation campaigns, and alternating brinksmanship and détente between Trump and North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un.

The ascent of the Alt-right in the U.S., and white supremacist influence on parties in the U.S. and Europe.

The continuing salience of Islamism, the teetering Iran deal, and ongoing degeneration of the Arab Spring to the Islamist Winter.

Table of Contents

1. Ideology

2. The Spectrum of Political Attitude

3. Nationalism

4. The Evolution of Democratic Theory

5. Liberal Democracy, Capitalism, and Beyond

6 The Liberal Democratic Process

7. Anarchism

8. Socialist Theory

9. Applied Socialism

10. Fascism and National Socialism

11. Ideologies in the Developing World

12. Feminism

13. Environmentalism

This work examines the development of popular politics in four representative English towns between 1761 and 1802. The book addresses hitherto unanswered yet fundamental questions about the electorate and the electoral system of later eighteenth-century England. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This work examines the development of popular politics in four representative English towns between 1761 and 1802. The book addresses hitherto unanswered yet fundamental questions about the electorate and the electoral system of later eighteenth-century England.

Originally published in 1982.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.