There were good reasons why ordinary people — the masses of an industrializing, urbanizing society — felt increasing loyalty to their governments in central and western Europe. More people could vote. By 1914 universal male suffrage had become the rule rather than the exception. This development had as much psychological as political significance. Ordinary men felt they were becoming “part of the system.”

Women also began to demand the right to vote. The first important successes occurred in Scandinavia and Australia. In Sweden taxpaying single women and widows could vote in municipal elections after 1862. Australia and Finland gave women the right to vote in national elections and stand for parliament in 1902 and 1906, respectively (although restrictions on Aboriginal women’s voting rights in Australia continued until the 1960s). In the western United States, women could vote in twelve states by 1913. One example among the thousands of courageous “suffragettes” was French socialist Hubertine Auclert, who in 1880–1881 led demonstrations, organized women in a property-tax boycott, and created the first suffragist newspaper in France.8 Auclert and her counterparts elsewhere in Europe had little success before 1914, but they prepared the way for the female vote in many countries immediately after World War I.

As the right to vote spread, politicians and parties in national parliaments usually represented the people more responsively. The multiparty system prevailing in most countries meant that parliamentary majorities were built on shifting coalitions, which gave political parties leverage to obtain benefits for their supporters. Governments also passed laws to alleviate general problems, thereby acquiring greater legitimacy and appearing more worthy of support.