What is democratic franchise?

In the late 18th century, "democracy" carried from Greek into English, French, German and other languages, meant rule by majorities of voting citizens, with the vote extended to all males over a certain age even if they possessed no property. Any increase in the scope of the franchise since this one, called "manhood suffrage," has since qualified as an increase in "democracy." Political historians should tally the first democracies in the West as, in chronological order, Athens (508 BCE), Pennsylvania (1776), Vermont (1777), Kentucky and Tennessee (1790) and France (1792, 1848). Virginia got "democracy" in this sense in 1865, New York State in the 1820s and England only in 1884. The list is not complete.