Question

example local self essay

Answer 1

By local self-government we mean the management of the affairs of a village, town, district or province by the people them­selves through their elected representatives, as distinct from im­perial self-government, which is the management of the affairs of the whole nation by the elected central government.

In England, for example, the purely local affairs of the parish are managed by the elected Parish Councils, of the towns by Town-Council or Corporations, and of the counties by Country-Councils.

These different councils are all elected from time to time by the people of the parishes, towns and counties, and administer all the local affairs which do not concern the central government.

The history of England shows that local self-government historically precedes national self-government, and is the school in which national self-government is learnt. It dates back to the ancient Anglo-Saxon times.

When the Saxons and Angles and Jutes conquered Britain they brought with them their own political institutions. Although each tribe acknowledged the authority of a leader in time of war, the Saxons were all free-men, who were used to self-government in all local affairs.

They had their town-moots, (moot means meeting, or assembly), their hundred-moots, and a general assembly of the tribe, called the folk-moot