The Need to Reform the Political System in 1815 In this question the focus is on the need to reform the political system which was in place in 1815. This meant that people who had a seat in parliament were often the aristocracy or gentry in British society. There was no salary paid to MP’s and therefore only a few people could afford to enter the field of politics. From this quote we can infer that it refers to the needs of a change in organization for the British political system to work fairly for the benefit of the entire British nation in the future. In order to answer this question it is clear that there were indeed people who wanted to reform the parliamentary system. However, there were also those who were content with the system that was already in place. Nevertheless, the question of whether it was right to want a reform will be assessed in this essay. One of the main criticisms of the political system of the system of 1815 was the idea of that it was in the benefit of the royal and aristocratic few in the expense of the majority of the British people. One of the leading voices in society which voiced this view was Tom Paine. He wrote a book called Right of Man which emphasised the need for change so that government was not based solely on tradition but in the control of the British people. This idea meant that reform was the only way of achieving this and that this was the only way of having a legitimate country. To argue that Paine had little influence over the force for reform is incorrect as his book was a best seller and was extremely significant in the thoughts of many in the middle and lower ranks. The idea of unfa... ... middle of paper ... ...e the lower ranks of society because they sought after a larger say in the running of the country. In conclusion, after analysing the radical and conservative views of the subject it is indeed true that the unreformed electoral system was in desperate need of reform. It is correct to believe that the system of 1815 does have some admirable points, in theory, such as the representation of all aspects of society through “virtual representation”. However, for the main reason of being unrepresentative and corrupt there needed to be a change in the system so that British politics could develop and mature into a system which allowed the best qualified people to become MP’s rather than someone coming into power based on wealth who may not be taking a part in the job for the right reasons which was to facilitate Britain.