Power to the people: The Reform League, the Allgemeiner Deutsche Arbeiterverein, and contentious politics in the 1860s

This dissertation is a comparison of English and German politics during the 1860s that examines political culture and the development of political parties during a decade that witnessed the beginnings of modern, mass politics. The Reform League and the ADAV were both significant examples of popular political organizations that represented radical-democratic ideals at a critical stage in the formation of political parties. The study revolves around a central question that in turn brings up three subsidiary questions. Why, most importantly, did English radical-democrats remain allied to the Liberal Party while their German counterparts embarked on a path of independence from and opposition to German liberals? To answer this question, the dissertation seeks to understand in what ways the English and Germans expressed and framed their political worldviews and how they interacted with other political actors. Finally, it examines the historical differences between the two cases that affected the formulation of political goals, the relationships between the two organizations and other political actors, and the ways in which goals and relationships changed over time.;Research indicates that explanations for the different trajectories of English and German political development lay in the details of the political process. An analysis of speeches, pamphlets, newspapers, letters, and financial records shows that explanations centered on long-term structural changes or ideological consensus/difference fail to appreciate the complexity and contingency of politics during the 1860s. When both organizations were founded in 1865 and 1863 respectively, the results were in no way a foregone conclusion. In general, a constellation of factors such as differences between the English and German (primarily Prussian) states and the presence or absence of revolution in 1848 interacted with ephemeral differences such as a fractured British Liberal Party elite and opportunistic Prussian conservatives like Otto von Bismarck to lead two ideologically similar organizations to different political outcomes.