Replication Data for: The Political Economy of Suffrage Reform: The Great Reform Act of 1832

We argue that the Great Reform Act’s suffrage provisions were part of a broader effort to constrain the executive, thereby enabling an expansion in the state’s repressive capacity. When they came to power, the Whigs first increased parliament’s power over the purse; and then bolstered its independence from the monarch and allied patronal peers by reforming parliamentary elections. These reforms to constrain the executive were followed almost immediately by substantial investments in the state’s policing capacity. Professional police forces had been stoutly opposed by the gentry since the Glorious Revolution on the grounds that they would unreasonably increase royal power. Once budgets and elections had been reformed at all levels of governance (national, municipal and county), taxpayers could be confident that their elected representatives would control the finances, and hence the behavior, of the new forces.本文主张，《1832年改革法案》（Great Reform Act）的选举权条款，属于一场旨在约束行政权的系统性举措的组成部分，此举实则为国家压制性权力的扩张提供了契机。辉格党掌权后，首先强化了议会的财政支配权；继而通过改革议会选举制度，提升了议会脱离君主及与之结盟的庇护贵族的独立性。此番约束行政权的改革甫一完成，国家警务能力便获得了大规模投入。自光荣革命以来，职业警察部队便始终遭到乡绅阶层的坚决反对，他们的核心理由是此类警务力量会不合理地强化王权。唯有当国家、市政与郡级等各级治理层面的预算与选举制度均完成改革后，纳税人才能够确信，其选举产生的代表将能够掌控这支新警务力量的财政开支，进而管控其运作行为。