Endogenous Political Legitimacy: The Tudor Roots of England’s Constitutional Governance

This paper highlights the importance of endogenous changes in the foundations of legitimacy for political regimes. It focuses on the central role of legitimacy changes in the rise of constitutional monarchy in England. It first defines legitimacy and briefly elaborates a theoretical framework enabling a historical study of this unobservable variable. It proceeds to substantiate that the low-legitimacy, post-Reformation Tudor monarchs of the 16th century promoted Parliament to enhance their legitimacy, thereby changing the legislative process from the “Crown and Parliament” to the “Crown in Parliament” that still prevails in England.

本论文着重阐明了政治政权合法性根基内生性变革的重要意义。其研究聚焦于合法性变革在英国君主立宪制确立进程中的核心作用。论文首先对合法性（legitimacy）进行定义，并简要阐述了一套可用于开展该不可观测变量历史研究的理论框架。继而通过实证分析证实：16世纪宗教改革后合法性根基薄弱的都铎王朝君主，通过扶持议会以强化自身合法性，由此将立法程序从"Crown and Parliament"模式变革为至今仍在英国通行的"Crown in Parliament"模式。