In the middle of the 5th century, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain. They used the power vacuum after the Romans left Britain to conquer Britain one after another and established seven kingdoms, big and small. British historians call the period from the end of the 6th century to 870 the "Seven Kingdoms Period". In these kingdoms, "witenagemot" consists of kings and nobles. Witenagemot's main function is to assist the king in handling state affairs and determine the heir of the kingdom according to the principle of heredity.
When it developed into the Norman Dynasty, William I established an institution similar to witenagemot, which was called the Great Council. It is composed of feudal lords of the monastic and secular academies and direct governors of the king. It meets once every three years to decide the important affairs of the country. Due to the complexity of large-scale conference institutions, it is often impossible to hold them, so small-scale conferences are built under large-scale conferences. The small meeting is the core organization of the big meeting, which is composed of senior court ministers such as the general manager of royal affairs and the chief security officer, and integrates legislation, administration and justice. Also known as "command meeting". It is considered as the predecessor of the British Parliament.
12 15, in order to resist the king's exorbitant taxes and levies, the nobles launched an uprising, forcing the king to sign the famous Magna Carta in British history. Its main purpose is to clarify the feudal rights of kings and nobles and prevent kings from violating these rights. But after Henry III acceded to the throne, he rejected the Magna Carta, so the nobles began to oppose the king again. 1258, Niu Zi convened a parliament called "Congress", and for the first time put forward the principle that the main ministers of the government should be responsible to the committee instead of the king, and convene the parliament regularly. Because the Oxford Parliament gave all the power to feudal big noble, it aroused the dissatisfaction of citizens, knights and free landowners. In order to win the support of these people, Simon de montfort, a rebel aristocrat, held a hierarchical meeting attended by nobles, citizens and citizens in 1265, which was called the beginning of the British Parliament. Although montfort failed later, the hierarchical meeting was still preserved.
1295, a meeting called "model parliament" was held in Edward I of England, England, which marked that the number of representatives in the three-tier parliament changed from unstable to relatively stable. /kloc-in the 0/5th century, the British Parliament gained real legislative power. From the 5th century to15th century, it seems that power has been transferred to the parliament which restricts the king's power, but the king still has the actual decision-making power. Congress is called only when the king needs it. "In the 24 years of henry vii's rule, the National Assembly was held only seven times, while in the 45 years of Elizabeth I's life, the National Assembly was held only 10 times. Even if it was only a few times, the National Assembly completely became a tool of kingship." Therefore, the Congress in feudal times was generally a subsidiary organ of feudal monarchy. Only when the capitalist mode of production excludes the feudal mode of production can the congress be truly transformed into a representative institution linked to assets. /kloc-in the 0/7th century, the British bourgeois revolution broke out, and the constitutional monarchy was established through the Bill of Rights, and Parliament became the center of British power. After the success of the British bourgeois revolution, Locke, a British classical liberal thinker, put forward their political design. Locke believes that in the natural state, according to natural law, everyone has the natural right to protect his life, freedom and property. These rights are self-evident natural rights, so they are inalienable and inalienable. It is only because of the inconvenience in the natural state that people sign contracts with each other and voluntarily hand over the power to punish others to the people's representative, the parliament. To this end. Parliament should have legislative power. In Locke's view, only the law can represent the people's will and be binding on all members. Since law is the embodiment of the will of the public, the parliament that makes laws is of course the institution that expresses the will of the public, so it should be in the highest position of all social powers, and the executive power and foreign power are subordinate to the legislative power.
In the process of realizing political liberation in the17th century, the British bourgeoisie gradually pushed parliament to the center of state power according to the design of bourgeois classical political theorists and jurists, which is the so-called "parliamentary sovereignty" theory. There are two main manifestations of "parliamentary sovereignty": on the one hand, parliamentary legislative power is in the highest position in the state power system. As long as the government exists, the legislative power should be the supreme power. Executive power and judicial power are subordinate to and responsible for legislative power. On the other hand, parliament has the right to supervise the exercise of executive power and to "transfer and replace" administrative organs, so that the "political responsibility" of executive power to legislative power can be implemented.
After the capitalist revolution, the British Parliament developed in the direction of "parliamentary sovereignty" envisaged by British classical political theorists. The Bill of Rights of 1689 and the Law of Succession to the Throne of 170 1 initially established the political system of British constitutional monarchy, which provided the initial legal basis for the establishment of modern British parliament. Mainly in the following two aspects:
First, consolidate and expand the functions and powers of parliament, especially the lower house. The Bill of Rights stipulates that the king may not terminate the entry into force of laws or repeal them without the consent of Parliament. Only with the consent of parliament can the king levy taxes. Maintaining a standing army within the kingdom in peacetime also requires the consent of the parliament. Parliament can vote freely. Parliament has freedom of speech and debate. In order to prevent the king from manipulating the activities of the National Assembly, the Law on Succession to the Throne stipulates that no one who holds any remunerated post or position subordinate to the king or receives a pension from the king can become a member of the House of Commons. The king's pardon has no effect on the impeachment case in the House of Commons. All bills have legal effect only with the consent of the parliament, and the king must govern the country in strict accordance with the laws of the country.
Second, make the government (Privy Council, then Cabinet) accountable to the king, and gradually turn to Parliament, especially the House of Commons. First of all, since the House of Commons can investigate the responsibility for the failure of domestic and foreign policies by introducing impeachment and impeachment bills, the Cabinet will try its best to implement the policies approved by Parliament. So he forced the king to start recruiting the leaders of the parliamentary majority to join the cabinet. If the king's ministers don't get the support of parliament, they should resign. 1742, the first British Prime Minister Volbo resigned in this way. 1782, the North Cabinet resigned collectively. Secondly, the functions and powers of the former Privy Council were gradually transferred to the Cabinet. William III began to select ministers from those who agreed with the views of the parliamentary majority.
However, this development process is not achieved overnight. /kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, that is, before the election reform in 1832, because the king still enjoyed considerable power and influence in the election of parliamentarians, the choice of prime minister, the attitude of cabinet members, and the dismissal of ministers, the government that the king did not like was often forced to step down. Although the government supported by the king could not win the trust of the lower house, it could still maintain its ruling position for a long time. Therefore, the functions and powers of parliament, especially the lower house, are still very limited. The real parliamentary sovereignty was realized after the election reform in 1832.
From 1832 to 1867, it is called the "golden age" of British parliamentary system. During this historical period, because the parliament and cabinet were not under the control of the king, and members of the ruling party and the opposition party often opposed the cabinet and prime minister formed by the party at that time, it was easier for the parliament, mainly the lower house, to exercise the "right to change cabinets."
According to statistics, from 1832 to 1867, ten cabinets collapsed because of distrust of the lower house. Another important driving factor for the realization of parliamentary sovereignty is the improvement of modern British party politics. The perfection of modern party politics is conducive to the legislative power of parliament finally defeating the executive power represented by the king. Since then, the bourgeoisie has realized its will by controlling political parties, political parties controlling parliament and parliament controlling cabinet. /kloc-after the transition from liberal capitalism to monopoly capitalism at the end of 0/9, the representative democratic political system of "parliamentary sovereignty" began to fail to meet the new requirements of the economic base, so the representative democratic political system of "administrative centralization" will inevitably replace the representative democratic political system of "parliamentary sovereignty". If we look at the constitutional changes in western countries at the beginning of the 20th century, we will find that during the four years of economic crisis and war, the state machinery in western countries began to strengthen, and its core symbol was that administrative power reached a central position in the modern western constitutional framework. Since the beginning of the 20th century, especially after the Second World War, the changes in the functions and powers of the British Parliament are mainly reflected in two aspects:
First of all, the focus of parliamentary power shifted from the upper house to the lower house. The electoral reform law of 1832 expanded the right to vote and abolished the power of the upper house to nominate candidates for the lower house, thus ending the situation that the upper house controlled the lower house. 19 1 1 passed the parliamentary law, which shifted the focus of parliamentary power and was an important milestone in the evolutionary history of the power relationship between the upper house and the lower house.
According to the law, the financial bill passed by the lower house does not need the approval of the upper house, and the upper house must submit it to the king of England for approval within one month after receiving the financial bill. The power to prove whether a bill is a fiscal bill belongs to the Speaker of the House of Commons. Other public bills passed continuously by the House of Commons (except bills that want to extend the term of office of the House of Commons for more than five years), if rejected by the House of Lords for three consecutive times, the House of Commons can directly submit them to the king for approval, provided that the time from the first session to the third session is not less than two years. In other words, the upper house can postpone the fiscal bill by 1 month at most, and postpone other bills for two years. 1949 parliamentary law changed the delay period for the upper house to pass the bill from 2 years to 1 year. Since then, the upper house has lost its absolute power to veto the financial bill and other bills of the lower house. In addition, the power of members of the House of Lords to serve as cabinet ministers is almost devastating. /kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, almost all cabinet ministers were appointed by the king from the members of the upper house, and Peter was the only member of the lower house. The Parliamentary Law of 19 1 1 confirms the political superiority of the House of Commons. By convention, the prime minister must come from the House of Commons, and the cabinet members are rarely held by nobles. It is estimated that there were only 15 ~ 20 nobles in the post-war government.
Second, the focus of the constitutional system has shifted from parliament to administration. First of all, the parliamentary rules of procedure are developing towards cabinet control. 188 1 year, the parliament passed an emergency resolution. According to this resolution, the Prime Minister has the right to ask the House of Commons to determine an issue as an emergency. The proposal was put to the vote without discussion. Since 1882, this rule has become a routine of parliamentary rules of procedure.
In 1887, Smith, the leader of the House of Commons, also put forward a new procedural rule: if members cannot fully review the bill before the scheduled time limit, the Speaker of the House of Commons must put the rest of the bill to the vote without discussion. Secondly, most of the legislative power of the original parliament was gradually transferred to the cabinet with the Prime Minister as the core in the form of direct or indirect, open or hidden. The power to propose budgets and other financial bills belongs to the Cabinet. Parliament also passed a large number of "authorized legislation" to the cabinet, so that the legislative power actually fell into the hands of the cabinet. Since the 1930s, all major policies in Britain have been decided by the Cabinet closely related to the Prime Minister, and the Cabinet has never voted on the policies.
Of course, the British Parliament in the era of administrative centralization is not a dispensable political institution. On the contrary, it still plays an irreplaceable role, providing the legal transformation from people's sovereignty to government power, providing the authoritative recognition of cabinet government legislation and policies, providing an institutional framework for the legitimate activities of political parties, and serving as a necessary place for citizens to "complain" to the government (state their feelings). What's more, by the 2 1 century, the parliament still retained the legal "parliament".
With the growing strength of the British bourgeoisie, in previous parliamentary reforms, the power of the upper house has gradually weakened, and the lower house has become the core legislative body of the country and the venue for all parties to compete. 19 1 1 year, Britain passed a new parliamentary bill, which further consolidated the power of the House of Commons and established the current parliamentary system.