Historians have invoked a wide range of factors to explain why reformers in the 1790s failed to obtain their objectives. Government repression, the strength of the popular loyalist movement, the pervasive influence of a sophisticated conservative ideology, the resilience of the institutions of monarchy, aristocracy and the Church of England, or the pluralism of British culture and the responsiveness of its institutions to the needs of the poor, have all been cited as key factors in this failure. So, too, have the ideological disagreements amongst reformers and the factionalism in the organisations for reform:

It is primarily with this last claim that this chapter takes issue. It does not deny that there were substantial disagreements among reformers over both means and ends, but it challenges the view that these contributed significantly to their failure to achieve parliamentary reform. In doing so, it also seeks to cast doubt upon the adequacy of explanations of the failure of reform which do not recognise that the radical agenda was as much the outcome of the political struggles of the 1790s as it was their cause.