The Influence Of The Village Community Spirit On British Local Autonomy In Late Middle Ages

The study of British local autonomy has attracted the attention of Chinese and Western scholars for a long time.Although the academic circles generally agree that Britain has the tradition of autonomy,they mostly discuss the issue of autonomy from the perspective of county autonomy,city autonomy and the relationship between the royal power.But most widely ignored the social main body Villagers in village and its multiple social conditions at that time,under the joint action of village autonomy is running normal grassroots society,village affairs and people can only rely on the village community.But in the process of the village community spirit also subsequently and life,it is for the villagers formed in the long-term production practice behavior pattern recognition is also ensure the operation of every transaction inside the village.This paper takes the spirit of village community as the clue to explain the historical evolution and operation mode of local autonomy in medieval England from a new perspective,and at the same time provides the theoretical origin and institutional change for the development of local autonomy in modern Britain.This paper can be divided into the following four parts:The first part defines the "English Medieval Local Autonomy" and simultaneously demonstrates the reasons for its formation.As the "mother country of local autonomy",the formation of England is the product of the combination of various social and historical conditions: limited kingship is one of the typical political phenomena in the Middle Ages,and its "omission" provides the space for the existence and development of village autonomy;On the one hand,the inheritance of empiricism makes the tradition of English self-government continue,and at the same time,it has a profound influence on the formation of self-government rules and rural judicial judgment.In addition,as the dominant spiritual field of the country,Christianity also has an important impact on the formation of local autonomy,which not only restrains the expansion of the royal power,but also plays a positive role in the cultivation of the concept of popular autonomy.The second part introduces the influence of community spirit on the system of village internal autonomy.The operation of local autonomy needs to have three elements:autonomous organization,autonomous rules and matching operating mechanism.Inside the village,the manor court was not only an important platform for villagers to participate in the management of public affairs,but also the main place to deal with the disputes between the Lord and the villagers.The customary law is the outcome of the development of rural self-government organization at a certain stage.It is a norm based on the public interests of villagers,which not only adjusts the social behavior of different subjects in the village,but also expresses and maintains the rural order.In addition,the effective management of village community mainly relies on the strength of village officials,who not only represent the real rights and interests of the Lord,but also represent the collective interests of the villagers.This dual identity makes the election mechanism of village officials particularly important.The third part introduces the role of village community spirit in village public affairs.In the face of the limited power of the monarchy,many duties that should have been undertaken by the government were transferred to the grass-roots society.As an important carrier of local autonomy in Britain,village community undertook most of the public affairs,such as regulating agricultural production,carrying out poverty relief and coordinating the relationship between the Lord and the villagers,which played an irreplaceable social effect.The spirit of village community,as the product of the development of village community to a certain stage,has exerted a positive and realistic influence on the operation of grass-roots autonomy,the adjustment of village social relations and the shaping of village community model.The fourth part introduces the inheritance of community spirit of local autonomy in the process of transformation to modern times.Looking at the development process of local autonomy in modern England,we can see that in addition to the economic,cultural and religious influences,the spirit of community has also played a powerful role in promoting its shaping.This function is mainly reflected in two aspects.First,when the traditional rules of village autonomy conflict with the current legal system(common law)of the country,how can the spirit of village community play its role in it? The second is the influence on the modern local autonomy model.