The strong leadership of Grey over the Whigs was also a vital part of the road to reform as Grey was determined to get a Reform bill passed through Parliament (Reform that you can preserve) because of growing pressure from the middle class businessmen in Large cities that had no representation such as Birmingham and Manchester. The Political Unions such as the BPU and NPU helped in the passing of the Reform act by opposing the Duke of Wellington as he tried to form a Government after Grey had filed a resignation, They came up with the slogan “To stop the Duke, go for gold!” They took all of their stored gold out of public and private banks and planned to stop paying taxes. Though in reality The NPU and BPU could talk the talk, but they had no intention on starting a Revolution, that was more the area of the Radical NUWC who wanted to do away with the Monarchy and the House of
He pursued a policy of what has been called ‘counter reform’. Counter-reform was partly a reaction to the murder of Alexander II, but Alexander III also believed that his fathers ‘Great Reforms’ had been a mistake, weakening Tsarism and leaving it vulnerable and insecure. He introduced political repression of opponents, counter-reform, increased central control, financial reform and the policy of Russification as the core stone of his reign. His policy was to undo the reforms as far as possible. In many respects, there is no doubt that Alexander III was the most effective Tsar in such the short reign that he had.
However after Karakazov attempts to assassinate the Tsar in 1866, he becomes much more autocratic, revealing that he had no intention of significantly developing politics, his use of the Zemstvas were in fact to help sustain autocracy, through making local administration more efficient. It can be suggested from this that Alexander II had put the Zemstva Act in place to appease the nobles angered by the Emancipation Act. Alexander III was much more of a successful autocrat. His reactionary attitude led to the reversal of many of his father’s liberal reforms, and was in some cases angered by them. Alexander III re-implements Tsarist form, through the use of repression and terror.
In particular, he released the serfs, which is generally seen as one of the most significant social reforms of the nineteenth century. Yet, the fundamental inconsistency between Alexander II's commitment to autocracy and his moves towards liberal reform isolated him from both reformers and conservatives. The growth of radical political opposition during his reign, was arguably given momentum by the liberal reforms he made which still left some radical groups pushing for revolution and eventually led to his assassination by terrorist of 'The People's Will' group in 1881. A great obstacle was that compared to Western Europe, Russia was backward economically, socially and politically in the late 19th Century. Russia was determined to not set up a new system by which the government were modernized and autocratic in which this stopped Russia from industrialising.
There were many factors that created a base for the reformist groups to flourish at that time in Russia which in turn created a Revolution. Alexander III was determined to upkeep Russia’s image as a major European power, unlike his father; however he was a conservative, believing that his father’s reforms were a mistake and took to reverse them as much as he could. The counter-reforms initially may have looked like a success due to the period of stability during Alexander III’s reign; however with the Revolution a few years later it seems to be that the counter-reforms were not as successful as they may have seemed. The political oppression resultant of these counter-reforms meant Russia politically was behind its major European counterparts, whilst England and France by now had a form of democracy, Russia was still being ruled by total autocracy, and this increased the resentment against the government and added to the growth of reformist groups. Because of the political structure in place in Russia at the time, without a revolution the only way change was possible was from the Tsar being willing to change things, the Tsar was not willing and he clearly demonstrated this through the counter-reforms, leaving an angry population
Chartism is a fairly dispersed movement, its large nature and appeal coupled with many different opposing viewpoints, make it really difficult to categorize, and equally difficult to find a defined origin. Chartism in its rawest definition was the world first working class movement, which by its definition would give it a huge backing politically. But why exactly did it come about in the around 1838? One of the main reasons would have to be the failure of the so-called “Great” reform act for most people. Effectively the act benefited the middle classes, who were now given an electoral voice in parliament, while the working classes were largely ignored, causing widespread anger and resentment for the act, and all those it benefited.
In his unexpected ascent to the top of British politics luck and circumstance were incredibly important in helping him achieve his ambitious plans to show the nature of his genius: Following the split in the Conservative Party over the Repeal of the Corn Laws, the Conservatives lost almost all of their politically talented MPs, thus leading for the party to be labelled the “Stupid Party” due to their minimal political interest and concern for the well-being of their land. Even in the 1850’s when Derby did manage to form the first Conservative Government for almost ten years, their lack of expertise and political ability was still a major hindrance to how they could perform in office in satisfying the needs of the electorate. Although this disastrous period of impotence was awful for the party, it did no harm to
Between 1902 and 1918, Winston Churchill experienced many highs and lows in politics, from being elected as Home Secretary in 1910 to the disastrous Gallipoli campaign of 1915. But was Churchill truly a political failure? Between 1906 and 1910, it can be seen that Churchill was a great believer in social reform. Social reform is a set of political changes that are designed to bring about changes in everyday society. He joined a group of young reformers, a group which included David Lloyd George, who was to be Prime Minister through the First World War.
Therefore Liberals wanted constitutional reform and more power to be given to the Reichstag. Whereas socialists demanded social reform and power to the workers and trade unions. However conservatives, such as Bismarck wanted to conserve to the Junkers – the elite class. To do this he proposed the Anti-Socialist Law in 1879 and also passed the Tariff Law, which appeased the liberals. The years leading up to the war the German people were dreading it, there were protests in Berlin in July 1914.
He came into power during the Napoleonic Wars, and is most remembered for his involvement in these wars and his sudden change from an active liberal ruler to a more moderate czar. Originally Alexander I relaxed political repression, but later in his reign he joined Metternich in the Holy Alliance in a movement to subdue national and liberal movements. Alexander died in 1825, and Decembrist revolts followed as people argued over his successor. After his brother's death in 1825, Czar Nicholas I came to power. Nicholas is remembered for his much harsher treatment of the people and constant strife for more power.