On The Arrangement And Evolution Of The Legislature In Early Colonial Pennsylvania (1682-1701)

The historic status of colonial Pennsylvania has been reevaluated since 1960s in America. Its social mode and political situations have provided important experience for the founding of political mode of the United States of America. Therefore, it seems to be of vital importance to study the history of politics in Pennsylvania and the development of its legislation. And, it is undoubted that the study on the history of this period of time would of great significance for understanding the origin and development of American politics and its parliamentarism.Basing on the study of legislature system, this article strives to establish a comparatively overall understanding on the legislature of early colonial Pennsylvania by studying the achievements of former researches, and dialectically selects any of good use. Under the guidance of Marxism philosophy, this article penetrates into the frames and relations of historical structure, conjoncture,événement concerning the arrangement and evolution of Pennsylvanian legislature by applying Fernand Braudel's theory of Annal School, as well as analytical methods of such subjects as historiography, political science and legislative science. This article not only analyzes the effects of incidental events and political and religious factors on historical development, but also pays attention to the influences of long-term situational factors on the arrangement and evolution of Pennsylvanian legislature, such as political and cultural traditions, the development of political system.This article is divided into three parts. The first part is introduction, in which the reasons for choosing this topic, writing arrangement and foreign and domestic research trends are introduced. The second part is main body of the article and the third part is conclusion. The main body includes four chapters, with the first chapter analyzing the ideological, religious and social origins of the designing of Pennsylvanian legislature, the second chapter analyzing the arrangement of Pennsylvanian legislature, the third chapter sorting out the frame of its evolution and summarizing its features, the fourth chapter analyzing the changes of legislative powers in Pennsylvania and the reasons causing them and summarizing the historic influences of the legislature. The author holds that the arrangement and evolution of Pennsylvanian legislature is continuation of religious, political, and economic struggles of England in New World. At the same time, it is also consequences of struggles for power among colonists groups. Under special circumstances of interests, religion and politics, the struggles for power to initiative laws are conducted by a group of radical colonists, who aim to protect their own interests. Beneath the surface of the evolutions of the Pennsylvanian legislature, there lay drastic political struggles. The history of the evolution of Pennsylvanian legislature is of vital historic importance in that it provides good textbook for American's political and cultural developments.