JEREMY C. MITCHELL is a Lecturer in Government at the Open University. His publications include Reforming the Lords (with Anne Davies), and (co-edited with Dirk Berg-Schlosser) Conditions of Democracy in Europe, 1919-39: Systematic Case Studies, and Authoritarianism and Democracy in Europe, 1919-39: Comparative Analyses.

List of Figures List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Explaining Open Voting in England, 1832-1868 Elections and Party Organization in Victorian England Some Electoral Consequences of the Great Reform Bill Organizing the Vote in Lancaster Electoral Change in Bedford 1832-68 The Voter and the Electoral Community After the Second Reform Bill The Organization of Opinion Appendix i: Poll Books and Nominal Record Linkage Appendix ii: Votes and Ballots Appendix iii: Measuring Electoral Change Notes References Index

A new account of voting between the First and Second Reform Bills, outlining a new interpretation of electoral behaviour, and emphasizing the links between individual electors and their social context. It also explores the consequences of these ideas for local political organization, suffragism, and the development of the party system.