Part II of this book dealt chiefly with the development of party discipline in the House of Commons in the 1860s and 1870s. No obviously satisfactory explanation of this development has been found. The traditional argument, due to Ostrogorski, that the establishment of local party associations after the second Reform Act led directly to increased discipline does not hold water for the 1870s (Chapter 5). The increasing number and complexity of divisions in which MPs participated probably had only a marginal impact by this decade (Chapter 6). The desire for ministerial position, while no doubt important later in the century, probably affected only a relatively small proportion of MPs in the 1870s, simply because of the paucity of government posts. Moreover, the prospect of the reward of office did not always lead to higher discipline (Chapter 7). The increasing tendency of governments to threaten the House with dissolution, while the most important factor identified thus far, is extremely difficult to assess (Chapter 8).

In this part of the book, attention turns from an exclusive concentration on the voting behavior of MPs to include the voting behavior of ordinary electors. The main focus will fall upon three fairly well defined and narrow questions: (1) When did English voters begin to vote for parties rather than men? (2) Why did they do so? (3) What were the consequences?

In answering these questions, it is necessary first to clarify what is meant by “voting for parties rather than men.”