英国和美国特许经营的演变【外文翻译】.doc

毕业论文(设计)外文翻译
Evolution of the Franchise in England and the United States*
By HUGH P. WILLIAMSON
ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT measures of the degree and quality of freedom in any political unit is the extent of the franchise in it. When a people is wholly deprived of political self-determination its bondage is absolute. When all of the rational, responsible persons in a society have the right to exercise the franchise and do so, that society has gone far in achieving for its members the ultimate in political freedom. Since the final objective of democratic government plete democracy, we can profit by knowing how far we, an English-speaking nation, e from our original position of plete political bondage; how far we stand today from the attainment of the maximum amount of political freedom possible in a anization; and what our position is with relation to these two extremes.
To measure our progress with respect to political freedom we must study the evolution of the franchise in our own government, and in that of England, our principal political progenitor. To obtain a proper perspective, and to view the process of political evolution in its natural sequence, we should look at the second first.
History of the Franchise in England
THE POLITICAL HISTORY of England, prior to the signing of Magna Carta by King John in the year 1215, is the story of almost constant strife between