央地关系视阈下中世纪英格兰市长选任

A Study of Mayoral Selection in Medieval England from the Perspective of Central-Local Relations

自13世纪以降,市长制在中世纪英格兰特权城市中普遍确立。地方社会选举与中央王权任命相结合成为市长产生的基本方式,围绕市长职位与人选的央地矛盾亦相伴而生,市长选任由此成为中世纪英格兰央地关系的重要内容。在市长选任过程中,利益斗争充斥于地方社会,王权则以灵活多样的方式和手段介入其中并加以管制。在市长选任机制下,市长既是“城市的人”,也是“国王的人”,在实际运作中较好应对了中央和地方的双重压力。市长选任作为国家治理的一种有效手段,平衡了地方自治与王国统一治理的内在张力,形成一种兼具合作与博弈、规制与弹性的央地关系。

The mayoralty was widely established in the cities and boroughs in medieval England since the 13th century.The basic method for mayoral selection has been a combination of local election and royal appointment,leading to conflicts between central and local powers,regarding the position and candidates for the mayors.Thus mayoral selection became an important content of central-local relations in medieval England.In the process of mayoral selection,to placate local interest conflicts,the crown intervened and controlled the results in flexible ways.The mayoral selection mechanism set the mayors in a dual role as city's or borough's men as well as king's men,and they responded to the dual pressure from the crown and local society successfully in practice.As an effective means of state governance,the mayoral selection mechanism balanced the internal tension between local autonomy and centralized governance,building a type of central-local relations that combined cooperation and game,regulation and flexibility.