Rotten borough: Difference between revisions
Created page with 'Rotten borough, decayed borough or pocket borough: a borough or consituency with so small a number of voters that the result of any election could easily be controlled by a patro…' |
mNo edit summary |
||
| (One intermediate revision by one other user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
A borough or constituency with so small a number of voters that the result of any election could easily be controlled by a patron, e.g., a local aristocrat (who could "pocket" the borough). In addition to the possibility for corruption and patronage, a large number of rotten boroughs made elections unrepresentative because a Member of Parliament who represented ten voters from a rotten borough wielded the same influence as one who came from a borough with an electorate of, say, one thousand people. | |||
Latest revision as of 16:01, 18 October 2010
A borough or constituency with so small a number of voters that the result of any election could easily be controlled by a patron, e.g., a local aristocrat (who could "pocket" the borough). In addition to the possibility for corruption and patronage, a large number of rotten boroughs made elections unrepresentative because a Member of Parliament who represented ten voters from a rotten borough wielded the same influence as one who came from a borough with an electorate of, say, one thousand people.