Polity IV Democracy Scores, Participation, and the Suffragettes

We noted today in lecture that Polity IV gives countries like the United States very high scores on the ”democraticness” variable, even during periods when a majority of the adult population–African-Americans, and women–were legally not allowed to vote. While Switzerland (1971) was the last European democracy to grant universal suffrage for women, Portugal was the last European country to do so (1976)–Portugal was run by a military dictatorship during in the early years of the 1970s.

In this era of social media abuse and bullying, it’s interesting to learn about some of the abuse hurled at the Suffragettes:

Since we all talk about political abuse on Twitter, this is really interesting on the abuse directed at the suffragettes by their opponents. Here’s a postcard sent to Emmeline Pankhurst. More here: https://t.co/j65EzWjdB3 pic.twitter.com/yReqKQEBjr

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) February 6, 2018