Voters, Patrons, and Parties: The Unreformed Electoral System of Hanoverian England 1734-1832

This is a wide-ranging study of electoral politics in England between 1734 and 1832. O'Gorman analyzes the voters, the control of the electoral system by the upper classes, and the function of an election in the unreformed period. He combines computer analysis with traditional historical methods to reconstruct the social and ideological world of the voters, and argues that an understanding of the electoral dimension is vital to a broader understanding of the Hanoverian regime and its popular acceptance.