Are voting rights and political activism complements, in that the extension of the franchise leads to an increase in political activism? Or are they substitutes, in that once the franchise has been extended other forms of activism are abandoned? We address this question by examining how the Great Reform Act of 1832 affected the number of petitions sent to parliament from each constituency. We use a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits plausibly exogenous variation in the gain or loss of seats in 1832. Constituencies that gained seats saw an increase in petitioning, suggesting that the franchise extension led to an increase in other forms of political activism. Constituencies that lost seats saw a drop in petitioning, suggesting that disenfranchisement reduces activism. These findings show that democratic reform can empower civil society, and explains how the limited reforms of the first half of the 19th century could have led to a full franchise in the early 20th century.