Publisher's Synopsis
This wide-ranging study of electoral politics in England between 1734 and 1832 attempts to provide an analysis of the control of the electoral system by the upper classes, the world of the voters and the function of an election in this period.;The author examines the political underworld of the time - the committee men, agents and canvassers who made the unreformed system work for as long as it did - and the voters themselves, discussing their motivations, prejudices, beliefs and ideals as well as their numbers and political behaviour.;This book has combined computer analysis with traditional historical methods to reconstruct the social and ideological world of the voters. It argues that an understanding of the electoral dimension is vital to a broader understanding of the Hanoverian regime and its popular acceptance. The interaction of the parliamentary parties at Westminster with the older political culture of the constituencies is traced in the final part of the book.
