Levellers and Universal Manhood Suffrage During the Putney Dabates (1647)

This is a review article. Its purpose is to present the findings of researchers on the English Levellers’ attitude to universal manhood suffrage, especially during the Putney Debates (1647). This issue is not clear and the dispute of researchers has been going on since the 1960s. The aim of the article is to present the findings on this issue contained in the important English studies on Levellers. The article presents the results of research that allows to answer the questions: whether the Levellers really supported the universal manhood suffrage, or were they therefore unconditional democrats? and why despite the success achieved during the Putney Debates the electoral reform proposed by them did not gain broad support.