PBROWER2A1 DK DEMOCRACY FOIBLES WHIG WAG THE DOG

"...It was the victory of the colonists on a democratic platform that gave democracy a long-term push in Europe. Without that victory Britain certainly wouldn't have reformed Parliament any earlier than they did...." DK excerpt, reply to pbrower2a1

The colonists were technically not operating on a democratic platform, as we think of it at all. This becomes clear if one reads things like Bailyn, and especially Clark. Palmer was confused about the 18th Century antecedents of colonial rebellion, thinking of them at times in class and democratic terms. They were basically late versions of commonwealthmen of various fringe heterodox religious persuasions.

The victory of England's great power enemies (not the colonists) gave democracy no push in Europe not already there. The French Revolution did so.

Britain moved to reform Parliament only after the Napoleonic Wars. The same forces within British political and religious history which had led to the colonial rebellion eventually led in turn to Parliamentary reform, not anything much the colonists either did or said. For the British, the success of the rebellion was a lesson in laxity not liberalism.