托马斯·史密斯的议会理论与英国政治变迁

Thomas Smith’s Theory of Parliament and British Political Changes

托马斯·史密斯是当今"共和"争论中一位被重新发现的重要人物。他的有关议会思想影响深远,但如何界定其性质,学界至今莫衷一是。有鉴于此,借助史料考辨与文本分析相结合,厘清"议会"概念在史密斯本人话语体系内的含义,将首先有助于指出他并非"议会主权论"的倡导者。此一认知偏差多是源于将史密斯16世纪60年代所表述的文本内容带入成书时的16世纪80年代,乃至此后17世纪40年代英国内战时期的政治语境而产生的"时代错置"。

Thomas Smith is a re-discovered important figure in the "Republican" debate. His parliamentary thinking has a far-reaching impact,but how to define its characteristics is still unresolved by the academic community. This article first tries to use the combination of historical analysis and text analysis to clarify the meaning of the concept of "parliament" in Smith’s discourse system and points out that he is not an advocate of "the sovereignty of parliament". This kind of cognitive bias is actually the "anachronism" that resulted from the textual content that Smith expressed in the 1560 s and the 1580 s when the book was written,and even in the context of the British Civil War in the 1640 s.