The Rise of Majority Rule in Early Modern Britain and Its Empire

Explores the emergence of majority rule in the elected assemblies of early modern Britain and its Atlantic colonies over two centuries.

William J. Bulman (Author)

9781108829205, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 February 2023

294 pages
22.5 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.43 kg

'[A] superb piece of work, an intellectual triumph, that firmly places the practice of politics and institutions back where they belong, at the forefront of historical debate. … Bulman has crafted a book that will become compulsory reading for everyone interested in the field and how legislature politics operates, then and now.' Chris R. Kyle, Journal of British Studies

This expansive history of the origins of majority rule in modern representative government charts the emergence of majority voting as a global standard for decision-making in popular assemblies. Majority votes had, of course, been held prior to 1642, but not since antiquity had they been held with any frequency by a popular assembly with responsibility for the fate of a nation. The crucial moment in the global triumph of majority rule was its embrace by the elected assemblies of early modern Britain and its empire. William J. Bulman analyzes its sudden appearance in the English House of Commons and its adoption by the elected assemblies of Britain's Atlantic colonies in the age of the English, Glorious, and American Revolutions. These events made it overwhelmingly likely that the United Kingdom, the United States, and their former dependencies would become and remain fundamentally majoritarian polities. Providing an insightful commentary on the state of democratic governance today, this study sheds light on the nature, promise, and perils of majority rule.

1. Introduction
2. Consensus in the Commons, 1547–1642
3. Consensus imperiled, 1640–1641
4. Consensus destroyed, 1641–1643
5. Revolutionary decisions, 1643–1660
6. The majority institutionalized, 1660–1800
7. Little parliaments in the Atlantic Colonies, 1613–1789
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], History of the Americas [HBJK], British & Irish history [HBJD1]