英语国家概况学期论文

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英语国家概况学期论文The History of Development of British Democracy

班级：英语N113班

姓名：沈晓

学号：201145639303

Abstract

The history of the democracy of the United Kingdom is the history that consists of party politics, monarchy, judicial system, parliamentary system, and cabinet system, the history that parliament gradually replaced King to rule the nation, the history that the principle which cabinet should be responsible to Parliament produced, developed and finally established, the history that party began and grew in its interior, the history that democracy defeated despotism and equality defeated privilege constantly, the history that the United Kingdom society make progress constantly.

The whole process of the history is exactly the process that the United Kingdom establishes the constitutional regime and gradually realizes the democratization.

In a word, the political democracy of the United Kingdom went through its process of gestation, birth, growth and maturity. And with this process, United Kingdom-style political democracy gave the world its unique nature.

Keywords：democracy Knights of Round Table Magna Carta Civil War the Bill of Rights Parliamentary Reform of 1832

Britain is arguably the oldest representative democracy in the world, with roots that can be traced over a thousand years. Other countries also have long political histories but these histories are marked by periods of sudden, and often violent, change. Although Britain too has had its periods of political instability, in contrast to say, France or the United State, the process of state-building has been one of evolution rather than revolution. This long, unbroken history is still apparent in Britain’s current political institutions and in its political culture.

Knights of Round Table

Round table is the meaning of "equality" and "solidarity". There was a legend that King Arthur’s knights had reached 150 up. The knights fought on the battlefield and discussed the domestic affairs in round table. When round table was held, King Arthur was around the big round table with the 30 knights, sitting in a circled. At this point, they were equal, no difference of king and knights. They could speak freely, adopting the principle that minority must obey the majority when dealing with national affairs. Though they would form some factions because of opposing political views, only on the round table there were no differences of status and everyone was allowed to speak freely.

This kind of democratic institutions was too advanced in the medieval, dark and ignorant Europe. Whether it existed or not, wide and long spread of this thought is enough to surprise. No wonder that Europe ended the feudal era and stepped into the era of the rapid development and modern civilization hundreds of years earlier than Asia.

Magna Carta

The oldest institution of government is the monarchy. This dates back to the Saxons who ruled from the 5th century AD until the Norman Conquest in 1066. The present Queen, Elizabeth II, is directly descended from King Egbert, who united England under his rule in 829.

The power of the monarchy was largely derived from the ancient doctrine of the “divine right of King”. It was held that the sovereign derived his authority from God, not from his subjects. Because of this diving right, although there were sometimes battles between different families who insisted they were the legitimate heirs to the throne, the actual existence of the monarchy has seldom been questioned. For a thousand years Britain has had a hereditary king or queen as the head of state.

While the King in theory had God on his side, in practice even in medieval times it was thought that he should not exercise absolute power. Instead, the sovereign should be willing to receive advice from prominent men. The monarch’s willingness to do this led to many battles between the king and other powerful groups like the Church and powerful, land-owning feudal barons.

It was a gang of feudal barons and the Church which opposed some of King John’s (1199-1216) policies. This opposition was so powerful that the king finally granted them a charter of liberty and political rights, sill known by its medieval Latin name of Magna Carta. Magna Carta placed some limits on the king’s ability to abuse his royal power. This is still regarded as Britain’s key expression of the rights of citizens against the Crown.

Civil War

In 16th century, at the appearance of the enclosure movement, capitalism developed rapidly in the United Kingdom, which was inevitable to conflict with the conservative forces at the time. Thus by the 1560s Puritan appeared, attacking the Church. At the beginning of the 17th century, there was opposition forming in the Parliament during James I and Charles I period. The Parliament adopted petition of right in 1628 to limit the kingship. The following year Charles I announced the dissolution of the Parliament. Then the Parliament was not convened for 11 years.

At the end of the 1630s, the Scottish uprose. In order to raise military spending, Charles I convened new congress on April 13, 1640, which met with the resistance from the bourgeoisie and members of the new Aristocrat. They required further limitation of the kingship and to give freedom of developing industry and commerce. But it was rejected by Charles I. therefore, Charles I dissolved the Parliament on May 5. It was known as the short Parliament.

As Scottish insurrectionists attacked, Charles I was forced to convene the Parliament again on November 3. The Parliament existed until April 20, 1653, known as the long Parliament. This Parliament was regard as a sign of the revolution beginning.

After the long parliament was convened, Parliament adopted Three years of law, providing that parliament shall be convened on a regular basis and shall not be dissolved without parliamentary consent. After many struggles, Charles I were at the end of his wits. Then in January 1642, he left London for Yorkshire in north of the United Kingdom. During August, Royal banner was risen in the Nottingham, declaring the crusade against Congress and provoking a civil war.

In Naseby in June 1645, Oliver Cromwell led Congress army to defeat the King's army and achieved a decisive victory. In June 1646 they overcame the

King's home in Oxford. Civil war ended with a parliamentary victory for the first time and the King became a prisoner of the parliament.

In the spring of 1648, the Restoration rioted in South Wales, Kent, Essex and other places and launched a second civil war with Scotland military alliance. In August, Oliver Cromwell defeated the Scottish army in the battle of Preston, and Scotland was into the United Kingdom. The second civil war was end.

After the ending of the civil war, the army went into London for the second time in December 1648, occupying the parliament and washing away the Presbyterian members .The remaining members were about more than 200 people. Since then, the Long Parliament was named as Residual Parliament. The parliament established Supreme Court to bring to trial of Charles I. On January 30, 1649, the Supreme Court courted decision that Charlie Stuart should be beheaded as a tyrant, traitor, murderer and national enemies. Charles I was publicly executed. Subsequently, the parliament adopted the resolution that canceled the House of Lords and abolished the monarchy. On May 19 it was announced that the United Kingdom was Republic and Commonwealth, no King and the House of Lords (Commonwealth of England).

On April 20, 1653, Cromwell dissolved the remaining long boards and established another small parliament (Bell States Parliament). Because some of radical members came up with the reform requirement, Little Parliament was forced to disband. Then on December 16, 1653, Cromwell became Lord Protector and republicanism was overthrown.

The Bill of Rights of 1689

In 1685, Cromwell died and his son succeeded to the throne as Lord Protector. He was cowardly and incompetent, which led to the phenomenon

that national affairs were dominated by a small group of military officers. In 1659, Charlie Cromwell resigned. General Monck who was stationed in Scotland led

the army marching in London on the pretext of protecting the parliament. After arriving in London, he decided to send someone to the Netherlands to negotiate with Charles I's son for restoration issues. Under the control of Monck, he announced the declaration in Netherlands.In May 1660, Charles succeeded

to the throne in London, named Charles II. It is known as the monarchy's restoration in the history.

After Charles II's restoration, he receded from his promise and dealt with participants in the revolution by means of terror. In 1685, Charles II died and his brother James II succeeded to the throne. During the reign of James II, he gave the Catholic Church civil rights of religious liberty and equality. Later he published the declaration of indulgence and gave all non-Catholic Church believers freedom of belief, including the Catholic Church believers. It led to the opposition of the whole country. In November, 1688, William, a Protestant, landed with his army. James II fled to France. Parliament plenary was convened

in February, 1689. William and Mary (James II's son-in-law and daughter) ruled the country together, and they made up with Declaration of Rights, condemning the James II’s act of sabotage, requesting the King not to levy taxes without the parliament's consent in the future, asking the Catholic not to be King of the United Kingdom, demanding any King of the United Kingdom not to marry Roman Catholics. In October, the parliament adopted the Declaration of Rights and enacted into law. It was known as the Bill of Rights. Since then, the United Kingdom gradually began to establish constitutional monarchy and political principle that the parliament is above the monarchy.

Parliamentary Reform of 1832

The United Kingdom was the first country that realized modernization in the world. In the process of establishing the modern state system, the development of British history experienced a peaceful and gradual process. With distinctive characteristics, parliamentary reform of 1832 reflected the unique historical and cultural tradition of Britain. British parliamentary system is known as “the mother of parliaments". Reform of 1832 is extraordinarily significant for the development of British history, making an outstanding contribution to the development of democratic society.

In the conflict of tradition and change, taking the road of integration is notable characteristic of British cultural patterns. Parliamentary reform in 1832 is an important event during the process of British political democratization and an important part that capitalism developed and matured. Because of the civil war and Glorious Revolution, United Kingdom took the first step in the political transition, which finished the transformation from absolute monarchy to multiple oligarchies, realizing the first spread of power.

In 1830, July Revolution broke out in France. It greatly encouraged the people of the United Kingdom and pushed forward with the reform movement. In November of this year, Gray form the cabinet. Face with strong calls of reform, Grey believed that concession had to be made now and reform was necessary. To that end, he appointed committee to proceed immediately to draw up a reform scheme and made instructions on the general principles of the reform scheme in order to meet the demands of public opinion as much as possible. Accordingly, committee soon devised a social reform scheme. In March 1831, the scheme came out. Main purpose of the reform was to make the middle class went into parliament because the middle class had formed a real and adequate public opinion group. Without them, there would be no aristocratic power.

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Fishermen from Scandinavia English Puritans 6 of 100 The Constitution of the United States provides that _____ shall be President of the Senate. the Chief Justice the Secretary of State the Vice President the President 7 of 100 Which of the following is NOT one of the clauses in Magna Carta? There should be the same weights and measures throughout the country. The principle of parliamentary supremacy should be confirmed and free speech in Parliament should be guaranteed.