AUTHORITIES AND ADMINISTRATIVE RELATIONS IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES

Abstract

The article discusses some of the features of European traditional society: the dominance of sacred tradition, the predominance of subsistence farming, paternalistic relations, the presence of local relationships, seniorvassal relations, the charisma of royal power. Such features of traditional society in many respects predetermined such features of its power-administrative organization as decentralization of power, the combination of power with land ownership, the predominance of military service over civil service, the widespread use of clergy in the sphere of administration, the borrowing of administrative samples of the Roman Catholic Church and the Byzantine Empire, etc. Subsequently, the author comes to the conclusion that European bureaucracy, which was originally a “patrimonial bureaucracy,” begins to emerge during the period of decomposition of European medieval society. A considerable influence on its formation was exerted by such processes as the emergence of a market economy, the formation of nation-states, the rejection of the principle of vassality, the establishment of a hierarchy of service, the reception of Roman law and the appearance of legally educated officials.