The origin of representation

ASSIGNMENT (5)

  1. Read carefully the articles fueros and Cortes. Skip the material after 1300. Make notes on some items in these articles. These notes should not be a summary but focus on causality and the economics of public institutions in history. Here the institutions are the fueros and the Corttes (be clear on the difference). Spain has been the place where representation was born. 
    • In the mid-term there will be at least one question on these articles. Before the mid-term, you should revise the notes you wll have made. The notes themselves will not be admitted in the classroom.
  2. Take similar notes from the two required items about England. You will find the Encyclopedia article especially useful. 
    • Likewise, there will be at least one question related to these items. 
  • Any question you may have on these articles can be discussed this coming Tuesday in class. 

  *Slides on Iberia and England (and also France). Take these slides as a list of items for reference. They are not substitutes for the lectures.

 

(A required reading is marked by an asterisk.)

Spain

  • * Fueros, article from Medieval Iberia: an Encyclopedia. p. 344-345. (not the entire article)
  • * Cortes, article from Medieval Iberia: an Encyclopedia.

In these two articles, don't get bogged down by historical details on people. Get the main point. If you keep an illustration of the main points, that's good but don't overload yourselves.

  • The travel through Northern Spain (1779) by John Adams (from Mc Cullough's celebrated biography of John Adams), p. 228-231.
  • Letter by John Adams about  that travel: text.
  • Engerman, Stanley L. and Kenneth L. Sokoloff (2005). "The Evolution of Suffrage Institutions in the New World," Hoover Institution.

England

 

 

  • Text of Magna Carta
  • Interview with Edward Green. The relevant part is the section PRIVATE INFORMATION AND DEMOCRACY. (I don't think his model applies to Magna Cartta, but thei interview is a very good read).