Changing electoral practices in England, 1885–1984

Journal of Historical Geography, 11, 3 (1985) 297-311

Changing electoral practices in England, 1885-1984 A. E. Green

In this paper, original material for two case study areas Hertfordshire and Northumberland is incorporated into a review of changing electoral practices during the hundred years from 1885 to 1984. The displacement of traditional elites by political parties is seen to lie at the core of an understanding of electoral change during the period: the political parties are shown to have utilized improvements and developments in communications and the media to exploit new cleavages and hence to transform the electoral scene. In 1885 elections were generally organized at the scale of experience, whereas by 1984 the scale of ideology had become more relevant for an understanding of electoral practices. The evidence presented shows that displacement of local elites and the rise of political parties was a gradual process, occurring at different speeds in different areas and at different electoral scales: thus emphasizing the importance of the principle of co-existence for electoral studies.

Students of elections--and electoral geographers in particular--have tended to favour either a cross-sectional approach or detailed analysis of individual case study areas in their research. While such foci of concern enable an investigation of the complexities of politics at one period in time or of local electoral histories, respectively, they permit only a partial view of broader electoral processes operating at a national scale. This paper is based on the contention that important political a n d electoral processes may only be understood within a framework which acknowledges the importance of history and allows recognition of spatial variations in processes of transition. In the discussion of changing electoral practices presented here, detailed analysis focusing on a relatively short time period is discarded in favour of a broader sweep covering a century of English electoral practices. Specific examples drawn from an examination of electoral statistics and contemporary reports in two study areas--Hertfordshire and Northumberland--are used to illustrate facets of changing electoral practices since 1885. Over the last one hundred years there have been significant changes in electoral practices. For instance, partial suffrage for men has been replaced by universal adult suffrage, traditional elites have been challenged by candidates from a wider cross-section of social backgrounds, and television has superseded the newspaper and the public meeting as the foremost campaign medium. These and other related developments may be regarded as representing a trend from localization to nationalization: from an electoral system where traditional, particularistic and ascriptive criteria were paramount to one in which modern, universalist and achievement-oriented characteristics assumed dominance. [1] In this paper, Taylor's [2] three-fold political economy of scale, incorporating 0305-7488/85/030297+ 15 $03100/0

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local (experience), national (ideology) and world (real) dimensions, is used as a framework for the discussion of a century of change in electoral practices. Emphasis is placed on the first two scales: the focus of concern being the replacement of the level of experience by the level of ideology in the structuring of British politics during the last hundred years. Three selected aspects of this restructuring process are traced in some detail. These are first, the displacement of traditional elites from their former positions of power as increasing emphasis has been placed on political parties rather than on individual representatives themselves; secondly, the changing role of the media in elections and related developments in the style of campaigning; and thirdly, the improvements in communications which have provided the essential context for the change in the scope of politics embodied in the transition from organization at the scale of experience to organization at the scale of ideology. At the outset, however, the electoral situation prior to 1885 is described, in order to provide a background to later nineteenth-century and twentiethcentury developments. Localization: the pre-1885 electoral scene

Before the Reform Act of 1832 the scale of experience is the most relevant scale for an understanding of the English electoral scene. Elections were parochial in nature, being neither conditioned by nor subordinate to national politics. General elections were spread over several weeks, rather than all contests throughout the country being held on a single day, and multiple candidates were common. [3] The electoral registration system was wildly inaccurate--while some electors had their names recorded more than once on the same register, others were not recorded at all. As late as 1885 the registration system was "so replete with technicalities, complications and anomalies, that every obstacle is put in the way of getting on, and every facility exists for getting struck off the register". [4]Before the introduction of the secret ballot in 1872 and the 1883 Corrupt Practices Act the freedom of the individual elector to cast his vote as h e pleased is also questionable. Prior to this time, elections were characterized by bribery and corruption, with large amounts of money spent on drinks, conveyances and bribes. Indeed in the Hertfordshire constituency of St Albans, a royal commission found proof of extensive bribery at the ! 842 general election and as a result the borough lost its right to return a member of parliament and was incorporated into the county constituency of Hertfordshire from May 1852. The 1883 act laid down stringent maxima, so that no candidate would be allowed to spend much over s Such was the situation in contested elections. Before 1885, however, more than half the seats were usually uncontested, since two- and three-member seats frequently were divided between the parties without a contest, thus saving "unnecessary" expenditure. In the period 1832-80, for example, half of the elections in Hertfordshire were uncontested, while in Northumberland the proportion of uncontested elections rose as high as two-thirds. In the age of Peel, the composition of the House of Commons was decided almost as much by uncontested as contested elections. [6] Some seats were under the control of patrons: the constituency of North Northumberland, for example, was controlled by the Duke of Northumberland, and from 1868 to 1885 a member of the patron's family--Earl Percy--was the

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representative. ITl Indeed, titled families--such as the Percys and the Ridleys-provided M.P.s for N o r t h u m b e r l a n d constituencies on several occasions during the nineteenth century. In constituencies not controlled by patrons, there was often a preference for local men to safeguard local interests, Is1and the willingness of the M.P.s to act in this w a y is indicated by the fact that territorial interests played an important role in cross-bench divisions. I9J Naturally it was M.P.s' perceptions of local interests that mattered, rather than a broader scope covering the whole population. Nevertheless, "local patriotism" was considered by contemporaries to be a favourable attribute, as is illustrated by an editorial written in 1889 in respect o f the first Northumberland county council elections: The role of councillors shows how very strong the feeling of local patriotism obtains in Northumberland. This is a very wholesome possession, and, while it is desirable that local feeling should not be carried too far, and lead to the rejection of men of capacity who happen by accident not to be identified with the place they are contesting, yet it is a commendable sentiment.t ~0] The existence of "local patriotism" is a significant indicator o f a localized political system organized at the scale of experience, and is illustrative of a style of life focused upon a c o m m o n social, occupational and physical community, in a world characterized by a "miniscule scale of living", l~q Local interests aside, there was a further tendency for votes to b e promised to individual personalities rather than to extra-local political interests. Thus traditional, particularistic and ascriptive criteria identified as characteristic of a localized electoral system were dominant. Three aspects of the b r e a k d o w n of this experience-oriented system, in which elections were decided mainly by local and individual factors, to one in which local political arenas were subordinated to a single national a r e n a - - i n which global totality was filtered through nation-centred ideologies, will now be traced in greater detail.

The displacement of traditional elites by political parties The displacement of traditional elites by political parties lies at the core of an understanding electoral change during the last one hundred years. Indeed, Lipset and R o k k a n [~2t conceptualize political parties as essential agencies of mobilization, serving to integrate local communities into the nation. The entry of nationally organized political parties on the electoral scene led to a nationalization of politics: [131in which old local power monopolies were broken down, in which there was a great change in the scale o f organization and locus o f power and in which a new political universe was produced. El41 Although the changes embodied within such a transformation in the scope of politics may be semi-revolutionary in character, empirical evidence from Hertfordshire and Northumberland indicates that displacement was a gradual process with local power monopolies retaining power in some areas and at some electoral scales long after political parties were well entrenched elsewhere. The self-containment of county society in the nineteenth century should not be under-estimated. In m a n y cases: The county, ..., was more than a geographical unit. With its own head, the Lord-Lieutenant, its own ecclesiastical organisation, its own courts, and its own foxhounds and beagles, it was a self-contained society.... In many counties, as in Trollope's Barsetshire, the parliamentary

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A.E. GREEN divisions created in t832 had correspondedto real social divisions, ... they had acquiredan independentcharacter of their own, with their own magnates, their own 'county town', and not infrequentlytheir own Quarter SessionsJ~5~

The continuance of this tradition of self-containment in the post-1885 period is made apparent by evidence from the first county council elections in 1889. In only 19 English counties was the first chairman of the county council chosen from outside the membership of the quarter sessions, and of the remainder, 26 county councils elected the previous chairman of quarter sessions for this office. [161 The magistracy were also well-represented among the wider membership: the first Northumberland county council contained: "sixteen county justices, besides, four borough justices and amongst these are two peers, one heir to an earldom and one M.P.". [171 Continuity and traditionalism is illustrated also by the inclusion in the list of councillors: "the names of most of the gentlemen whose families have for years been identified with the management of county affairs". E~Sj Outside the magistracy, most councillors were from the upper social classes; for example, the composition of Lancashire county council in 1889 comprised a mainly rural group formed of landowners, gentry and farmers, and a larger group of industrialists and factory-owners,t~91In the more rural county of East Sussex, amongst the councillors there were three peers, a peer's son and a baronet, four gentlemen of leisure and six farmers. I2~ Such socio-economic profiles of council membership reflect the fact that the survival of the county gentry as a local ruling class was an important factor in the establishment of county councils in 1889. [211 Councillors from these backgrounds, although in no way sharing all the same interests and supporting all the same policies (important cleavages existed on temperance and religious issues, for example), were bound together by a common bond of interests formed by ownership of landed property and an appreciation of its advantages and responsibilities, r221 A common educational background was a powerful influence in establishing a link between members of the local ruling class, who tended to possess two, and possibly three, of the "crucial characteristics" of the "ideal" councillor. I23t These were first, "station" or "respectability" (status); secondly, "substance" or "property" or "wealth" (class); and thirdly, "intelligence" or "education" (esteem). The gentry (landowners below the peerage and above the yeomanry)E241tended to score on all three "crucial characteristics": in terms of status--with their respectable styles of life, manners and morals; in terms of class--through their identification with the dominant economic order of society (by virtue of property and wealth); and in terms of the esteem in which they were held--due partly to their superior education.1251 These "crucial" characteristics are aptly personified in Major Browne, who came forward as a candidate for the Northumberland county council electoral division of Embleton at a 1903 by-election, lie emphasized his attributes of "station" and "substance" in the election campaign. His credentials listed in his electoral address were formidable: he had spent his whole life in the district, had held public office as a district councillor, chairman of a school board, and magistrate; he was concerned with agriculture (the chief industry in the area) and favoured economy and efficiency in administration. Thus at the scale of experience relevant to the organization at this by-election Mr Browne was well

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known and admirably qualified to represent the interests of the locality. In the words of a report: "A better known candidate than Mr. Browne could scarcely be found in this part of the county. His interest in the land, in sports, especially as the popular master of the Percy Hunt, and the social life of the district, do not require any comment". E261He was duly elected. His willingness to stand for office indicates that the "complete gentry" role, I271sustained by the "gentleman ideal", which simultaneously aided government recruitment by making public service a gentlemanly obligation, and defended the identity, political power and social prestige of an elite group by inspiring them to retain their grip on public affairs, L2slremained significant in the twentieth century. During the nineteenth century gentlemen from the same mould as Mr Browne participated in a comprehensive apparatus of political, religious and cultural control. This domination may be conceived of in terms of a pyramidal pattern of society, with the squire at the apex, clerics beneath the squire, then farmers, shopkeepers, tradesmen, craftsmen and agricultural labourers, t29j Ownership of property--by the squire, clerics and farmers, was associated with socially and legally defined rights, I3~ so that, in time, through the operation of processes of legitimation, factual matters of power became imbued with evaluative overtones: not only "did" the squire rule the village, but it was believed that he ought to do so. ~3q Acceptance, by both the representatives and the represented, of this role of social responsibility, originated at the domestic parish level, where the squire slipped naturally into his role of protector of his household, tenants and parishioners. In this way, local landowners came to represent the embodiment of a "ceremonial" as opposed to a "democratic" regime L321in which rule was by personal power and public display. The crucial element in the subordination of one class to another in this fashion is to be explained largely by the "dull compulsion of economic relations 'L331and supporting belief-creating strategies. After all, workmen in tied houses stood to lose their homes as well as their livelihoods in disputes with their employers. Thus deferential relationships associated with the "ceremonial" regime usually operated in favour of the landowners, "with whom ''f341 tenants felt obliged to vote. This obligation is illustrated by a report of the first parish council meeting in the Hertfordshire village of Barley: the result of a first vote taken by show of hands was quite different from that of a second vote on the same question by poll. E35JSimilarly, at the 1889 Northumberland county council elections "the majority of the landlords who became candidates were elected". E361 It is significant to note, in this context that Lee [371 based his analysis of the development of Cheshire county council on the assumption that the transition from localized "traditional" politics of a "county society"--involving rule by part-time amateurs from a local social elite--could only be understood by examining the causes of one important social transformation: the disappearance of the "country party" from English politics. The "country party" was defined as being constituted from those men with the necessary property qualification who could secure the nomination of the lord-lieutenant to be chosen as a justice of the peace. It is suggested that the number of "social leaders" (defined as members of the "country party") elected to serve on councils was related to two factors: first, the degree to which a local society tolerated the principles of social leadership and elected representatives from that class of gentlemen (both businessmen and landowners) who predominated in quarter sessions; and secondly, the willingness of the great landowners, the magnates and important

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political patrons to participate in the business of local elected councils. In 1889 lower-class deference was weakening in some localities. This m a y be illustrated by the fact that accusations of electoral pressure imposed by one candidate u p o n the electorate, could harm the accuser as much as the accused. This was reported to be the case in the 1889 N o r t h u m b e r l a n d county council contest in the Prudhoe division between M r Grey, fighting "under the auspices of the Liberal Association", and M r Liddell, a colliery owner: A handbill, distributed the day before on Mr Grey's behalf rather injured that gentleman's candidature than furthered it. In this bill, allegation was made that great pressure had been brought to bear upon electors by officials of the colliery, in order to induce them to promise to vote for Mr Liddell, and pointing out that if they had been induced to promise their votes by undue pressure by officials they were not bound by that promise. As the miners were perfectly aware that no pressure of any kind had been placed upon them by any of the supporters of Mr Liddell, the handbill very naturally defeated its purpose, and did something towards strengthening the position of Mr Liddell53s] The importance of deferential relationships and obligations diminished as individual candidates became less important and the parties which sponsored them more important. The entry of nationally organized parties into national and local elections may be seen as the major m e a n s through which traditional systems of local influence were broken down while the scope of political conflict expanded and the direction of dominant cleavages changed. At the general election scale, the National U n i o n of Conservative Associations and the National Liberal Federation were the important agents in the exploitation of new political cleavages, which subsequently led to the transformation of the electoral scene. By 1880 the Conservatives came fairly close to providing a candidate in every constituency. I39] Prior to this time, the Conservatives had in general represented rural interests while the Liberals had defended urban ones. The crucial issue between the agricultural and manufacturing sectors of the economy throughout the nineteenth century was foreign trade: the fundamental question being whether domestic agriculture ought to b e protected against the cheaper grain produced overseas or whether manufacturing industry should be supported through the supply of cheaper food for industrial workers. The divide between the Conservatives and the Liberals centred largely on these strains until the 1880s, [4~ when, with the advent o f suburbanization, the rural-urban basis of the cleavage system weakened as business owners started to move from the towns and the cities to the suburbs and countryside. Gradually, cross-territory class representation began to replace cross-class territorial representation, as Conservative candidates entered borough contests and landed interests were merged with urban and suburban interests. By World W a r I the change in the direction of conflict, which m a y be attributed to the nationalizing electoral strategy a d o p t e d by the Conservatives in the late nineteenth century together with the expansion o f the scope o f conflict as a greater proportion of the population were enfranchised and the freedom o f individual electors to vote as they pleased was enhanced. At the same time, a shift in the dominant social base of politics from religion, language and regional affiliation to social class [4q led to a replacement of the scale of experience by the scale of ideology in the structuring of British politics. Thus by 1910 a general election had become closer to a plebiscite than a means of discovering who the local man o f power and influence wished to send to Westminster. At the parliamentary scale, proprietary and family boroughs declined in importance

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and by 1910 uncontested seats were no longer a significant proportion of the total. With the exception of one unopposed return at the 1945 general election, uncontested elections were entirely a pre-World War I I - - a n d largely a preWorld War I--phenomenon. At the local government scale, however, uncontested elections remained the norm until World War II--well over 50% of candidates were returned unopposed at Northumberland county council elections in the 1960s--and traditional elites retained their importance (particularly in the rural areas) well into the twentieth century. Politicization of county council elections was largely a post-World War II phenomenon. Prior to this time the majority of candidates stood as Independents and it was n o t until the socialists entered contests in urban areas and became an organized force on the councils that the antisocialists took retaliatory action. In some remote rural counties such as Westmorland, Shropshire and north Northumberland local elections were not politicized until the institutional nationalizing boost of local government reorganization in 1974. I42JIt was easier for the political parties to mobilize newly enfranchised workers in the densely populated, economically segregated areas of the cities than in villages or farm communities. E43J Even in more urbanized counties, the Labour party often failed to penetrate successfully the more rural divisions which were largely by-passed by the socio-economic nationalizing forces associated with the industrial revolution, and consequently tended to continue to be dominated by the highly stratified structures of rule inherited from a manorial and feudal past. The paternal rule of the aristocracy and gentry, reminiscent of the scale of experience, continued to offer an effective barrier against class politics; such that rural areas were laggards in the process of politicization. For example, in Hertfordshire the county council electoral division incorporating the Bowes-Lyon family seat at St Pauls Walden was represented by different generations of this same family: Viscount Hampton was returned as councillor for the Codicote division at the elections of 1895, 1898 and 1901, while Mrs R. P. Bowes-Lyon was returned as the Codicote councillor at the 1949, 1952 and 1955 elections and, after a boundary reorganization, for the Kimpton division in 1958 and 1961. Such loyalty to certain families demonstrates the persistence of deferential and localist traditions at the local government scale. Similarly, localism remained strong in the Royston electoral division in Hertfordshire as late as 1967 and 1970: as illustrated by the way in which a well known "local man" could count on local support in an electoral contest: in a seemingly similar fashion to nineteenth-century elections organized at the scale of experience: "With one of the candidates a local man in the village of Barley, and on polling day the turnout was 56%, well above the national average ... 'Jack' Wilkerson, who topped the poll, has lived in the village all his life. ,,[44] Such relatively high turnout levels in the village of Barley in 1967 and 1970, when Mr Wilkerson was the successful candidate, compared with that in the other parishes within the electoral division (Table 1) provides further evidence of the strength of "locality" and "friends and neighbours" effect,t45J It is clear that the process of displacement of traditional elites by political parties occurred earlier at the parliamentary scale than at the local government scale. The scales of experience and ideology therefore co-existed as relevant for political organization at different electoral scales within the same area, and in different areas at the same electoral scale.

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A.E. GREEN TABLE 1

Turnout in the Royston Electoral Division in Hertfordshire County Council Elections, 1964-70

Area

Turnout (%) 1964

1967

1970

Barkway

39-1

42-0

29-6

Barley

46.2

56.5

50"2

Kelshall Reed Rushden Sandon Therfield Royston

56-0 43.2 33.6 28.9 45-8 56-3

52-2 42.2 42.9 37.8 40-8 53"8

28.0 34.1 32.9 29-7 29-2 30" 1

Changes in the role of the media and the style of campaigning Before the 1880s and on into the twentieth century in some areas, the scale of experience is the relevant scale for understanding political geography. For most people politics were the politics of the town or village in which they lived their lives. Elections considered as national politics were frivolous and primitive; but as local politics they became serious and rational--hence the suggestion that general attitudes to elections in Victorian times may be summed up in the terms "political indifference" and "ignorance". L46j In tandem with the transition from organization at the scale of experience to organization at the scale of ideology, were significant developments in other spheres. Of primary importance was the introduction of universal education in 1870, which helped to broaden horizons and opened the way for new processes of socialization and belief-creating ideologies. Similarly, non-conformity, with its centralized administrative structure and its itinerant ministry acted a powerful solvent of local attitudes and played a significant role in the awakening of consciousness on ideological issues. Methodism has been credited with creating an all-encompassing way of life that broke decisively with traditional village mores; [47] indeed studies of Methodism have tended to stress the individualistic social outlook of adherents, f481Non-conformity helped to awaken working-class political consciousness and hence the chapel has been regarded as one of the seed-beds of the labour movement, m~ In the following pages the impact and course of the transition from organization at the scale of experience to organization at the scale of ideology on electoral practices are illustrated by tracing the changing role of the media in elections. The development of communications and the mass media may be conceptualized as creating a national political environment by bringing the same events and personalities to the attention of voters everywhere. By utilizing physical improvements in communications while at the same time determining the content of the information spread, the Conservatives were able to switch emphasis from the tradition of cross-class territorial representation indicative of organization at the scale of experience to cross-constituency class representation characteristic of organization at the scale of ideology. It is contended that during the late nineteenth century the nationalization of party propaganda necessitated a transformation in the style of campaigning,

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manifested by a greater degree of organized political activity. I5~ The changes in electoral practices embodied in the shift of the parliamentary campaign from the constituency to the national scale and illustrated by the changing relative importance of various m e d i a - - p u b l i c meetings, newspapers, canvassing, radio, television and opinion polls--will now be outlined in greater detail. In a British election there are two distinct campaigns: one is official and local, the other is unofficial and national. E511 With the supremacy o f the scale of ideology the national campaign became paramount. The increasing emphasis on national affairs can be traced by investigating the changing content and character of election manifestos. F o r instance, in the early nineteenth century politicians rarely ventured outside their own constituencies--Peel announced his manifesto from his own constituency: Tamworth. Gladstone's Midlothian Campaign 1879-80 (outlining the foreign policy that he would pursue if the Liberals were elected in 1880), and Chamberlain's " U n a u t h o r i s e d Programme" of 1885 (listing the domestic social reforms u p o n which his campaign was based), were--like the 1835 T a m w o r t h M a n i f e s t o - - p r o c l a m a t i o n s of individuals rather than parties. The Midlothian campaign was in some respects a new departure, but as a "national campaign" it was partial in nature; being a speaking tour by a party leader in a limited geographical area, comprising speeches linked by a c o m m o n theme. The Liberals' Newcastle Programme of 1891 drawn up at the annual conference of the National Liberal Federation, was the real precursor of modern manifestos Ls21and the national campaign. Detailed analysis of the 1892 general election in the Tyneside area t531has shown that the constituency contests clearly reflected the national pattern. The content of the election addresses and speeches, and the widespread distribution of national party literature, helped to make the campaign recognizably national. The c o m m o n experience of industrialization and urbanization, were identified along with changes in communications, as the key factors producing this "nationalization" of electoral politics. Nevertheless, at this relatively early stage national issues were filtered through the gauze of a strong local and regional identity, with particular emphasis being placed on the local significance of national issues. The traditional forms of electioneering associated with organization at the scale of experience still persisted in 1892, particularly in the rural constituency of Hexham, and the small b o r o u g h of Tynemouth. The politics of influence and the market place were in evidence, with the public meeting and canvassing as the prime techniques o f etectioneering. The public meeting was regarded as the principal medium of contact with the electorate in the counties, but public meetings were often characterized by apathy--expressed in low attendances--as is illustrated by an account of events in Hertford in 1918: Messrs. Graveson & Cocks who have been nominated without opposition to represent the borough of Hertford on the County Council, advertised a public meeting of the electors to be held at the Town Hall on Monday evening but, as usual, the voters displayed lamentable lack of interest in the matter, for there were not quite twenty present, and most of those personal friends or relatives of the candidates. Every year the County Council spends thousands of pounds of ratepayers' money and though the electors are constantly crying out about the burden of the county rates, when an opportunity comes of making their voices heard, they show their lack of interest by staying away.t541 The situation was no better in N o r t h u m b e r l a n d where a verdict that "Berwick electors are appallingly apathetic about public affairs 'E551 was reached after an election meeting in the town was attended by a total audience o f three. By 1964,

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public meetings were deemed "a thing of the past" in local elections since "most candidates" seemed "content with door-to-door canvassing", t561 In a leaflet entitled "Information for Candidates" relating to the 1970 Northumberland county council elections, the Northumberland Voters' Association claimed that "experience has shown that in County Council Elections a public meeting is seldom worth the effort and expense", t571Instead, it was suggested that success could be best achieved through coverage of the area with a printed address, canvassing--particularly aimed at getting known supporters to turn out, organization on polling day (including, for example, cars and tellers) and the obtaining of postal votes. Apart from the public meeting and canvassing, the other main traditional channel of communication between candidates and electors throughout the last one hundred years has been the newspapers. The newspapers fulfilled an extremely important role in nineteenth-century electioneering. The majority of towns and cities had a daily local newspaper and provincial weeklies were much more numerous than they are today. In general, local newspapers in Victorian times carried more national news than in the twentieth century, and there was a particular emphasis on detailed parliamentary reporting. Politics was the staple of the nineteenth-century dailies, and many newspapers were dependent financially upon political parties. Such a newspaper-dominated media system emphasized partisanship, and the continuity of voters' allegiances. During the twentieth century, the popular press developed a broad social function rather than a narrowly political one, and in this largely depoliticized press politics rated fairly low among readers and was one of the subjects which costed more to include than it earned, t58~ With the development of new forms of broadcasting media, particularly radio and, in later years, television, broadcaster-controlled broadcasts began to supplement party-controlled broadcasts. Radio and television aspired to impartiality and completeness in contrast to the partiality of newspapers. Emphasis shifted from the candidates as party members, to the leaders within the parties (often acting in a global as well as in a national context); and more generally, from the parties to the voters, r591For instance, the general election of 1945 was not a "candidates' election", but a battle of "mass manoeuvre", with substantial success going to the "big battalions", f6~ Likewise, the theme emerging from a study of the 1951 election was that local issues, candidates and organizations made little difference to the result; instead, there was reason to believe that elections were being fought more and more on the national level. [611 Since communication is concerned with reception and response, as well as transmission, [621 it is significant that from the 1950s onwards, elections and politics seemed increasingly to take place on television and to be received by people through television. In 1950, a mere 10% of households in Britain owned a television set, but by 1970 the proportion had risen to 95%. Television has significantly changed the patterns of political campaign activity from the time of the "first TV election" in 1959. [631 Candidates have adapted their campaign strategies to the particular demands of television n e w s . [641 Thus, the national television campaign for the February 1974 general election--supplemented by national opinion polls--has been credited with undermining the constituencYbased campaigns. I651 In October 1974, there is some evidence of a backlash as more emphasis was placed on the co-ordination of local and national campaigns, with stress on local

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applications of national issues. L661In the 1979 general election the prime position held by television amongst the broadcasting media was re-emphasized when it emerged that the favourable Liberal performance in the Anglo-Scottish border region may have been aided by the fact that the area formed an independent television region, f671 Thus, it would seem that as well as being a significant enabling agent in the nationalizing of politics, television--particularly local television--has the potential to bolster up and enrich local communities. E681 Similarly, the proliferation of "grass-rooting" tactics, as initiated by the Liberals in the mid-1960s, through which an attempt is made to place importance upon the constituency work of representatives and local issues, [691together with the increased appeal of Nationalist and Ecology parties in contemporary British politics, points to recognition of local needs and identities ET~as bureaucracies and governments in advanced industrial societies have become increasingly technocratic in orientation and composition to deal with the claims of international diplomacy at the scale of reality.t711 Here then, lies the nub of conflict between the nation state and local communities--between organization at the scale of experience and organization at the scale of ideology in the modern world: "on the one hand [there is] an increasingly rationalised, technical and efficient machine, the 'scientific state' run by an army of impersonal officials and special experts; on the other, a kaleidoscope of historic, competing culture communities, unique, incommensurable, symbolically personalised."[72] Ironically, the mass media, and television in particular, which has helped create a national political environment by bringing the same issues to the attention of voters everywhere, has at the same time accentuated potential conflict by bringing home to the disadvantaged the advantages of those elsewhere. E731 The development of communications Closely linked with changes in campaigning and the rote of the media outlined above, improvements and developments in communications during the last hundred years provide the essential context enabling the change in the direction and scope of conflict which underlay the displacement of traditional elites and the rise of nationally organized political parties. Without physical developments in methods, universality of access and speed of transportation and communication, party leaders could not have toured the country, national party organizations would have proved difficult to maintain and many issues today perceived of as national issues would have had little relevance at the local scale. Reductions in the cost of movement and increases in the potential for movement have changed the scale of human interaction. The penetration of transport networks and associated socio-economic changes may be considered as taking the form of a broadening of the scale of centralization of activities and a "backwash effect" spreading some development into previously untouched areas. [741 The internal combustion engine has been identified as the crucial element in the breakdown of the self-sufficiency of village life. [751 The potential for such a breakdown is illustrated by increasing levels of car ownership in Great Britain, from 15,000 in 1905, to 1,700,000 in 1930, to 3,000,000 in 1950 and to 15,000,000 bY 1975-E761 The impact of "full motorization" was such that the perimeters of settlements no longer made natural boundaries, r l .and significantly this proved a crucial factor behind the reorganization of the local government system in 1974.

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The communications revolution in the last hundred years thus has had a major effect on mobility and on access to extra-local information. Whereas, to agricultural labourers working in north-east Hertfordshire in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century--integrated within localitybased occupational and social communities--it made little difference whether the capital was 40 or 400 miles away, I781by 1984 this same geographical area could be considered in functional terms as part of the London metropolitan region. Conclusion It is clear that electoral practices have undergone a substantial transformation in the last hundred years. The scale of experience has been replaced by the scale of ideology as the relevant theoretical framework for an understanding of elections, as crossqocal class based divisions have replaced cross-class locality based divisions. Four out of five key features of the pre-1885 electoral scene--an inaccurate registration system, the high frequency of uncontested elections, the widespread occurrence of bribery and corruption and patronal control of individual seats--are no longer evident. A fifth feature, local patriotism, no longer exists in the old nineteenth-century sense of preference for a local man irrespective of his political views, but during the last decade there has been a resurgence of localism as reflected in the growing appeal of Nationalist and Ecology parties. This may be interpreted as a backlash against the increasing supremacy of ideological and global issues. Indeed, Dunleavy f791has emphasized the importance of the local context in the development of political alignments and this could be reinforced by future developments in inter-personal rather than mass media of communications: The evidence presented here has shown that it was through the utilization of new media and campaigning forms that political parties were able to displace traditional elites; hence the scale of ideology replaced the scale of experience. In the latter years of the nineteenth century the parties exploited socio-economic (for example, urbanization and industrialization) and institutional (extension of franchise and electoral system reform and developments in education) forces of change in altering the scope of conflict at the general election scale. The entry of parties in a more aggressive form into contests was the major means through which local influence was broken down and the "country party" disappeared from English politics. By World War I the scale of ideology had replaced the scale of experience as the most important structuring influence on politics. The scale of experience retained its importance much longer at the local than at the national scale. Indeed, the importance of the principle of co-existence, exemplified in this instance by dissimilar electoral conventions associated with different electoral scales, is the major general result emerging from this paper. Evidence from the case study areas of Hertfordshire and Northumberland shows that it is possible to conceptualize a continuum of overlapping electoral environments along which the displacement of traditional elites by political parties occurred as the scale of ideology replaced the scale of experience. It would be possible to develop a classification of electoral environments in accordance with prevailing electoral practices--such as the social characteristics of councillors elected, the number and names of political parties entering the contest, the relative importance of various media types in the campaign and the

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number of unopposed returns; and to identify crucial temporal watersheds in electoral developments. The rise of political parties in national and local elections undoubtedly has been the most important feature influencing electoral practices in the last one hundred years. In 1984 it would seem that the political parties remain firmly entrenched, although the recent emergence of the SDP reflects the potential for further changes in the electoral scene. Electoral reform is far from dead: future changes in the electoral system could have important consequences for electoral practices in the years to come.

Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies University of Newcastle Notes [1] A. Norton, The evidence considered, in G. W. Jones and A. Norton (eds.), Politicalleadership in local authorities (Birmingham 1978) [2] P. J. Taylor, A materialist framework for political geography, Transactions o f the Institute o f British Geographers 7 (1982) 15-34 [3] F. W. S. Craig, British parliamentary election results 1832-1885 (London 1977) [4] N. Blewett, The franchise in the United Kingdom Past and Present 32 (1965) 27-56 [5] C. O'Leary, The elimination o f corrupt practices in British elections 1868 1911 (Oxford 1962) [6] N. Gash, Politics in the age o f Peel." a study in the technique o f parliamentary representation 1830-1850 (London 1969) [7] H. J. Hanham, Elections and party management." politics in the time o f Gladstone and Disraeli (Hassocks Sussex 1978) [8] D. Stoker, Elections and voting behaviour: a study of elections in Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland and Westmorland, 1760-1832 (Unpubl. University of Manchester Ph.D. thesis 1980) [9] H. Berrington, Partisanship and dissidence in the nineteenth-century House of Commons Parliamentary Affairs 21 (1968) 338-74 [10] Newcastle Daily Chronicle (18 Jan 1889) 4 [ll] P. Laslett, The world we have lost (London 1971) 57 [12] S. M. Lipset and S. Rokkan, Party systems and voter alignments (New York 1967) [13] W. Claggett, W. Flanigan and N. Zingale, Nationalization of the American electorate, paper prepared for the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association (Nashville, Tennessee 1981) [14] E. E. Schattschneider, The semisovereign people: a realist's view o f democracy in America (New York 1960) [15] Hanham, op. cit., 1 [16] J. M. Lee, Social leaders and pubfic persons: a study o f county government in Cheshire since 1888 (Oxford 1963) [17] Newcastle Daily Chronicle (14 Jan 1889) 3 [18] Newcastle Daily Chronicle (18 Jan 1889) 4 [19] J. D. Marshall, The history o f Lancashire County Council 1889-1974 (London 1977) [20] C. R. V. Bell, A history o f East Sussex County Council 1889-1974 (London 1975) [21] J. P. D. Dunbabin, British local government reform: the nineteenth century and after English Historical Review 92 (1977) 777-805 [22] G. E. Mingay, The gentry." the rise and fall o f a ruling class (London 1976) [23] E. P. Hennock, Fit and proper persons." ideal and reafity in nineteenth-century urban government (London 1973) [24] Mingay, op. cir. [25] (3. Day and M. Fitton, Religion and social status in rural Wales: 'buchedd' and its lessons for concepts of stratification in community studies Sociological Review 23 (1975) 867-91 [26] Northumberland MSS 530 1/4 (1903) [27] D. C. Moore, The gentry, in G. E. Mingay (ed.), The Victorian countryside (London 1981) 2 383-98

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[28] R. H. Wilkinson, The gentleman ideal and the maintenance of a political elite, in P. V. Musgrave (ed.), Sociology, history and education (London 1970) 12642 [29] J. Robin, Elmdon: continuity and change in a north-west Essex village 1861-1964 (Cambridge 1980) [30] H. Newby, C. Bell, D. Rose and P. Saunders, Property, paternalism and power. class and control in rural England (London 1978) [31] W. U Guttsmann, The British political elite (London 1965) [32] E.W. Martin, The shearers and the shorn." a study o f life in a Devon community (London 1965) [33] N. Abercrombie, S. Hill and B. S. Turner, The dominant ideology thesis (London 1980) [34] D. C. Moore, The politics o f deference: a study o f the mid-nineteenth century English political system (Hassocks Sussex 1981) [35] J. Wilkerson, Two ears o f Barley: chronicle of an English village (Royston 1969) [36] Newcastle Daily Chronicle (18 Jan 1889) 4 [37] Lee, op. tit. [38] Newcastle Journal (17 Jan 1889) 8 [39] J. Cornford, The transformation of Conservatism in the late nineteenth century Victorian Studies 7 (1963) 35-66 [40] S. Rokkan, Citizens elections parties (New York 1970) [41] E. S. Wellhofer, To 'educate their volition to dance in their chains': partisan mobilization and regime stability in Britain 1885-1950, paper prepared for the American Political Science Association meetings (Denver 1982) [42] S. L. Bristow, Local politics after reorganisation: the homogenisatio n of local government in England and Wales Public Administration Bulletin 28 (1978) 17-33 [43] Rokkan, op. cit. [44] Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire Reporter and Royston Crow (21 Apr 1967) 5 [45] D. Read, The English provinces c. 1760-1960: a study in influence (London 1964) [46] J. Obelkevich, Religion and rural society." south Lindsey 182~1875 (Oxford 1976) [47] R. Moore, Pit-men, preachers and politics. the effects o f Methodism in a Durham mining community (London 1974) [48] I. Sellers, Nineteenth-century nonconformity (London 1977); S. Koss, Nonconformity in modern British politics (Oxford 1975); D. W. Bebbington, The nonconformist conscience, chapel and politics 1870 1914 (London 1982) [49] J. F. Glaser, English nonconformity and the decline of Liberalism American Historical Review 43 (1958) 352-63 [50] Wellhofer, op. cit. [51] A. Ranney, British general elections: an introduction, in H. R. Penniman (ed), Britain at the polls, 1979: a study of the General Election (Washington D.C. 1981) 1-29 [52] I. McLean, Dealing in votes: interactions between politicians and voters in Britain and the U.S.A. (Oxford 1982) [53] L. Kitchen, The 1982 election in the Tyneside area (Unpubl. University of Newcastle upon Tyne M.Litt. thesis 1979) [54] Hertfordshire Mercury (8 Mar 1913) 3 [55] Newcastle Journal (27 Feb 1925) 7 [56] Newcastle Journal (6 Apr 1964) 7 [57] Northumberland Voters Association, Information for Candidates: Northumberland County Council Elections (Berwick-upon-Tweed 1970) [58] M. Milne, The newspapers o f Northumberland and Durham: a study o f their progress during the 'Golden Age o f Provincial Press' (Newcastle upon Tyne 1971) [59] Ranney, op. cit. [60] R. B. McCullum and A. Readman, The British general election of 1945 (London 1947) [61] D. E. Butler, The British general election o f 1951 (London 1952) [62] R. Williams, Culture and society 1780-1950 (Harmondsworth 1971) [63] D. E. Butler and R. Rose, The British general election o f 1959 (London 1960) [64] G. Benjamin, The communications revolution in politics Proceedings o f the Academy o f Political Science 34 (1982) 1 12 [65] D. E. Butler and D. Kavanagh, The British general election o f February 1974 (London 1974) [66] D. E. Butler and D. Kavanagh, The British general election o f October 1974 (London 1975) [67] J. Curtice and M. Steed, Appendix 2: Analysis of the voting, in Butler and Kavanagh, op. cit. [68] P. Hain, Community politics (London 1976)

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[69] R. Abler, D. Janelle, A. Philbrick and J. Sommer, Human geography in a shrinking worm (North Scituate 1972) [70] A. D. Smith, The ethnic revival in the modern worm (Cambridge 1981) [71] R. Scase, The state in western Europe (London 1980) [72] Smith, op. cit., 195 [73] Claggett, Flanigan and Zingale, op. cit. [74] P. O'Sullivan, Transport networks and socio-economic change L S E Graduate Geography Department Discussion Paper 1 (1966) [75] J. D. Gay, The geography o f religion in England (London 1971) [76] K. Robbins, The eclipse o f a great power." modern Britain 1870 1975 (London 1983) [77] W. Hampton, The county as a political unit Parliamentary Affairs 19 462-74 [78] Robin, op. cit. [79] P. Dunleavy, The urban basis of political alignment: social class, domestic property ownership, and state intervention in consumption processes British Journal o f Political Science 9 (1979) 409-43; P. Dunleavy, Urban political analysis (London 1980)

N o t e s on contributors

Hou Ren-zhi obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool in 1949 for a thesis on the historical geography of Peking and in 1984 the University of Liverpool awarded him an honorary D.Sc. He is a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and head of the geography department at Peking University. I n recent years he has visited Canada and the United States. He has made many contributions to the study of arid areas in western China and has played an active part in the planning of Beijing. Jeanne Kay is associate professor in the department of geography at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Her research interests are the historical geography of human interaction with wilderness landscapes and natural resources in North America. With Craig Brown she is writing a book on early Mormon lumbering in Utah. Craig Brown received his Master's degree in geography from the University of Utah with a thesis on the allocation of timber resources within the Wasatch Mountains of Salt Lake City, Utah, 1847-1870. He is continuing his research into M o r m o n lumbering. Philippe Roudi6 is a maitre-assistant at the Institut de G6ographie et d'l~tudes R6gionales, Universit6 de Bordeaux III, Talence. He was awarded his doctorat d'6tat in 1980 for a thesis on the rural landscape of the Gironde and wines of Bordeaux in the recent period. His research interests are in the geography of viticulture, agriculture in contemporary France and the historical geography of Aquitaine. Gareth Shaw is a lecturer in geography at the University of Exeter. His research interests are concerned with the historical geography of commercial and industrial developments. Anne Green is a research associate at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at the University of Newcastle. Her postgraduate thesis examined nationalizing forces in English elections, 1885 1981. Current research interests include analysis of urban and regional change in Britain since 1971, regionalization and computer graphics.