The Ecclesiastical Roots of Representation and Consent
Jørgen Møller
Recent attempts to explain the development of medieval representative institutions have neglected a long-standing insight and legal historians: Political representation rule by consent were first developed within Catholic Church following eleventh-century Gregorian Reforms subsequent “crisis church state”. These practices then migrated secular polities in thirteenth fourteenth centuries. This was facilitated towering position society general ubiquitous “areas interaction” between religious lay spheres particular. I document these processes analyzing initial adoption proctorial at political assemblies, first, Church, polities. findings corroborate recent insights about importance diffusion regime change, they shed light on puzzling fact that consent—the core principles modern democracy—only arose spread Latin west.
Perspectives on Politics|Scopus (Elsevier)