British Parliament: Mother of Parliaments When it comes to British Parliament, the first impression occurs to us is “Mother of Parliaments”. We are told that many other countries followed the model of Britain to establish their own parliaments. However, what made British Parliament “Mother of Parliament”? Below are some of my points.
First, it has the longest history. In 1215, the lords forced King John to sign the Great Charter, which covered two important matters: no tax should be made without the approval of the council, and no freedom should be arrested or imprisoned except by the law of the land(Chang Junyue, p.50). After King John died, his son, Henry III, wanted to defeat the lords and their charter but failed. This time, the lords forced him to accept the charter and the “parliament”, including the lords, churchmen and knights from each county. In order to raise funds for wars, Edward I opened a new parliament in 1295. People called it the model parliament because its composition became the model for later parliaments. The model parliament is the beginning of British Parliament.
Second, it always struggled to limit the monarchy. Since its birth, Parliament has started the fight against autocracy. There were a lot of despots in ancient Britain. They were irreconcilable with Parliament and intended to withdraw its powers. Therefore, Parliament used various methods to protect itself and constrained the king’s power. It influenced the state affairs by petitioning to the king, weakened the monarchy by financial powers and even threatened the king by wars. At last, Parliament managed to defeat the monarchy and make it work for parliamentary sovereignty. Because of these, British Parliament is known as “the cradle of democracy”.
Third, it created new electoral system. Before the early nineteenth century, the electoral system of Parliament was under control of the king, so feudal officials and rich people could manipulate elections. Nevertheless, since 1832, Parliament carried out a series of reforms. These reform measures gradually abolished restrictions on property and gender of voters and determined the constituencies by administrative divisions. Thus common people could enter Parliament to participate into politics, which accelerated the process of democratization in UK.
Forth, it also created party system. Before the mid-19th century politics in Britain was already dominated by the Whigs and the Tories, but they were not political parties in the modern sense. After the reforms, both evolved into the political parties and party system came to mature: the leader of the party with most members in the House of Commons becomes Prime Minister and he chooses other Ministers from his own party colleagues. The party with the next largest number becomes the Opposition. This system makes political parties in Parliament more systematized and institutionalized. Also, competition between the Ruling and the Opposition makes Parliament more democratic.
In conclusion, British Parliament is one of the earliest democratic political institutions in human history. Its originality brings it the title of “Mother of Parliaments” and its spirit will influence the world forever.
Bibliography
常俊跃，英国历史文化，北京：北京大学出版社，2010
朱永涛，Essentials of British and American Cultures, 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2007
