The crucial moment in the global triumph of majority rule was its embrace by the elected assemblies of early modern Britain and its empire. This expansive history charts the emergence of majority voting as a global standard for decision-making in popular assemblies, in the age of the English, Glorious, and American Revolutions.

William J. Bulman is Associate Professor of History and Global Studies in the Department of History at Lehigh University. His articles on the intellectual, religious, political, and cultural history of England and its empire have appeared in Past and Present, Historical Journal, and The Journal of British Studies. His previous publications include Anglican Enlightenment (2015) and, as co-editor with Robert G. Ingram, God in the Enlightenment (2016).

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.