During the period between the 1770's and the late 1800's, known as the Industrial Revolution, a vast expansion in the role of government in Britain ensued. Such an expansion can be contributed to a number of factors defining this era, in such fields as overseas influences and ideologies, the economy, social structure and the state of the working class. When such considerations are taken into account, the drastic increase in the role of government in Britain was inevitable.

The state of France during the 18th century affected the political atmosphere in Britain greatly. New principles that initially fuelled the political unrest in France, which lead to its Revolution, were highly regarded by many in Britain. Political manifestos, notably Rousseau's social contract of 1762, Votaire's writing against the power of the Church, the work of the Economists and Montesquieu's novel The Spirit of the Laws, in which different systems of government were discussed, resulted in the introduction of laissez-faire, liberalist, socialist and utilitarian forms of government. Such ideologies were debated over and adopted by varying reformist individuals and factions in Britain, such as John Stuart Mill, Thomas Paine, William Lovett and the Chartists and Liberalists. However, due to the events of the "reign of terror", in which the French monarchy was overthrown by the increasingly radical middle class, the British upper classes feared a si...

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