Representative Thought And Its Practice In The Late Middle Ages Of England

The formation of modern representative democracy is not achieved overnight,but a long nurtured from the middle ages of representative democracy,is the so-called "Rome wasn't built in a day",the formation of modern representative democracy or parliamentary system is numerous political thinkers of the middle ages the crystallization of the thought and theory of constitutional government,and the domestic academic circles on the lack of investigation on this aspect.Domestic historians have made some significant achievements in the study of representative democracy in the western middle ages and modern times,but there is still a lack of systematic analysis on the emergence,growth,transformation and development of representative democracy in the middle ages.In addition to the guarantee of "political authority comes from social community",the representative thought in the middle ages also includes the following contents:the royal power comes from the transfer of the people's power,but the people still retain the ownership and ultimate control over it;The use of public power should be based on the consent of the social community,that is,"matters involving the public should be decided by the public";Institutions composed of representatives selected by various levels or groups of society can exercise the political power of the community,in particular the legislative and taxation powers.Through the analysis of these concrete contents,it is clear that there are countless links between the idea of representative and other elements of constitutional government.First of all,election and representative are two aspects of the same system,which are interdependent and inseparable.Secondly,political power comes from the social community through the process of "consent"."matters involving the public need to be decided by the public" should also be based on the "consent of the social community".Therefore,the "consent factor" is included in the representation.In addition,in order to achieve the effect of "limiting the power of the king and the king under the law",the joint questions of the republic and the consultation of the powerful and powerful also need to take a reasonable form,that is,representative meeting.Therefore,representative meeting is the best way to realize the idea of the rule of law.Finally,the parliament composed of representatives elected by the people or the nobility could share the power of the king and play a role of checks and balances.Therefore,the practice of the idea of representative is one of the ways to realize the separation of powers and checks and balances.In this paper,the historical tradition and cultural environment of representative democracy constitute the content of the first chapter.In the middle ages,the king thought and practiced a lot about the state management and the development of the Roman Christian church,which created the conditions for the emergence of the idea of representative democracy.The witan and the feudal court were the most representative state governing bodies of the secular ruling class in the middle ages,and a democratic form similar to the "early religious plenary assembly" also emerged within the church to settle some disputes in the spiritual world.The influence of kingship on the witan,the feudal court and the church system was the primary political structure of the state in the middle ages.At the same time,the question of what kind of power and restriction the kingship enjoyed in the witan,the feudal court and the church system,as well as what the origin of the kingship was,shaped the course of the thought of representative democracy in the middle ages.The second chapter discusses the initiation of representative democracy.In the middle ages,the thinkers in England thought a lot about freedom and the right to freedom.Thinkers in the middle ages believed that natural rights,property rights and political rights were important symbols of people's right to freedom.The right of the people to enjoy the above-mentioned freedoms and freedoms is a fundamental right endowed by natural law,and it is a fundamental right of freedom that no one may violate or deprive at will.As the main body of legislators,the people have the right to protect their own property rights,to elect their own monarchs,and to choose the form of government.Moreover,the people may use their freedom to vote on matters of interest to all.The medieval thinkers' interpretation of freedom promoted the spread of the spirit of freedom in the middle ages,inspired the people's insistence on and defense of freedom in the middle ages,and had a very important influence on the formation of representative democracy in the middle ages and later in England.English medieval times remains a large amount of historical documents,directly reflect the king and nobles,all social levels of freedom,of the concept of law,the power and rights of cognitive and appeal,the third and fourth chapter in this article,the theory of representative democracy system and the system design of study is the representative factors extracted from the documents,for the construction of English medieval representative democracy theory undoubtedly has important value.Chapter five deals with the early practice of representative government in England and the process of its constant adjustment.The system of representation and representation came into being,which promoted the formal standardization of meetings at all levels,such as the west gate parliament and the model parliament.In addition,the development of the charter effectively guarantees that "the ultimate source of political power is the community of citizens".The charter history of medieval England recorded the never-ending struggle between the aristocracy and the king in the process of the continuous development of public rights and political guarantee.The king was busy defending his prerogatives,and the nobles were persistently trying to get the king to make new concessions.To sum up,western medieval representative thought plays a crucial role in the concept of constitutionalism.Representative thought is not only the concrete connotation of the concept of constitutionalism,but also its concrete practice,which is the only way for the successful implementation of the design of constitutionalism.