To “Educate their Volition to Dance in their Chains”

Abstract

Part I of this research examined the transformation of British politics in the 1885-1910 period: the expansion of suffrage in 1885, the incorporation of the newly enfranchised into political life, and the resulting changes in party alignments. Latent variable partial least-squares (LVPLS) algorithms generated dynamic across-time models of political change. These models were then tested with maximum likelihood (ML) methods. The research concluded that the seeds of realignment emerged in the period as the Labour movement successfully mobilized class voting while the Liberal party became progressively isolated from middle-class Nonconformism. Part II of the research examines the 1918-1950 period for further evidence of partisan realignment following the expansion of the electorate in 1918 and 1928 as Britain approached the “one adult, one value, one vote” ideal. LVPLS and ML models support the previous conclusions by highlighting the stability of party alignments during the period, which are increasingly supported by class-based voting but not to the exclusion of religion for the Conservatives.