Government Reforms

City and national governments in the later 19th century perceived the changes that were taking place in the cities. They began programs of "reform" to address these changes. More broadly, the idea of "reform" suggested to many in the 1800s the Enlightenment idea of progress. Reform meant improving politics and government for the better, to suit the new, modern age that had dawned.

One of the most important of such "reforms" was the expansion of the right to vote. The first such "reform" took place in Britain in 1832, and a broad expansion of voting rights had been a central goal of the liberals during the 1848 uprisings across Europe. However, the uprisings had failed, while the British Reform Bill had worked, so most liberals concluded that voting rights needed to be expanded only gradually, not to everyone at once. In 1867 and again in 1888, Britain enacted "reforms" that expanded the right to vote, eventually to all adult men. Women were not included in these reforms until the 20th century.