Electoral sociability [ Politics & Society ]
… of sociability and even festivity, in person and in print; but they could also generate unsociability in the form of drunkenness, hostility, bitter partisanship and even violence that many commentators saw as impolite and damaging to the … for government-favoured candidates. The more puritanically-minded also saw such entertainments as debauched bouts of drunkenness. In 1696 a disgusted John Evelyn expressed dismay at the ‘confus’d, debauch’d and riotous manner of electing … could hardly be ‘brought to pay one another the civility of the hat’. 12 Elections, it was said, filled the land ‘with drunkenness, opprobrious language, impious oaths and execrations, with violence and party rage, and often with …
Corruption | Elections | Impoliteness | Politeness | Politics | Print culture | Violence
Encyclopedia