英语国家概况学期论文

[键入文档标题]

[键入文档标题]

班级：英语N113班

姓名：沈晓

学号：9303

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.