rotten boroughs能解释下怎么回事吗

rotten boroughs能解释下怎么回事吗
rotten boroughs能解释下怎么回事吗

rotten boroughs能解释下怎么回事吗
腐败选区（rotten borough 或 decayed borough）,又称为口袋选区（pocket borough）,是指英国国会选区之中,一些拥有极少选民,容易被有权势或富有之人所操控利用,并在未改革前的英国平民院裏造成不公平和不具代表性的影响的一些选区.
腐败选区是指那些拥有极少选民的选区,选民通常少得可以逐一地被贿赂.这种选区通常是在繁荣兴盛时被给予选举配额,但随後当它们逐渐衰落,人口下降後,选举配额并没有随之而更新.其中一个例子就是12世纪时兴盛的主教城市旧塞勒姆,它随後因为附近索尔兹伯里的崛起而被荒废,但却继续保有国会中的的两个议席.这种选区通常也被贵族所埪制,他们自己在贵族院中已有议席,并更透过把平民院中得到的议席给予他们的儿子、亲戚或友人来增加他们自己在国会中的影响力.
口袋选区是指那些可以很容易地被一个拥有选区中大部份土地的大地主所操控的选区.因为当时的投票制度并不是不记名和秘密的,因此拥有土地的地主可以驱逐那些不投票给他所指定人选的人.
在十九世纪,改革逐渐出现.1832年的改革法案成功消除了57个腐败选区,并重新分配国会的选举配额给予新兴都市.1872年的选票法案颁布了秘密投票制度,这使行贿很难有效,因为行贿人不能得知被行贿者实际所投的票.来自维基.

rotten boroughs :选民稀少、影响力小的选区
参考资料如下:
A rotten, decayed, or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used ...

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rotten boroughs :选民稀少、影响力小的选区
参考资料如下:
A rotten, decayed, or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within the Unreformed House of Commons.
A rotten borough was an election borough with a very tiny population, often small enough that voters could be personally bribed. These boroughs had often been assigned representation when they were large cities, but the borough boundaries were never updated as the town's population declined. For example, in the 12th century Old Sarum had been a busy cathedral city but was abandoned whenSalisbury was founded nearby; despite this, Old Sarum retained its two members. Many such rotten boroughs were controlled bypeers who gave the seats to their sons, other relations or friends; they had additional influence in Parliament because they held seats themselves in the House of Lords.
Pocket boroughs were boroughs that could effectively be controlled by a single person who owned most of the land in the borough. As there was no secret ballot at the time, the landowner could evict residents who did not vote for the person he wanted.
By the 19th century, there were moves toward reform and this political movement was eventually successful, culminating in theReform Act 1832, which disfranchised the 57 rotten boroughs and redistributed representation in Parliament to new major population centres. The Ballot Act of 1872 enacted a secret ballot, making vote bribery impractical as there is no way of knowing for certain how an individual has voted.
Quite a few famous statesmen actually represented pocket boroughs.

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