Walter Ullmann - Popular Self-Government

From Walter Ullmann's book A History of Political Thought: The Middle Ages;

'And yet, if a closer study were to be made of the 'ordinary' way of life of the 'lower' sections of the populace, it would be found that they acted very much on the ascending principles of government, which, from a universal-historical standpoint, seems to be more germane, if also not more natural, to the unsophisticated than the highly complex and intellectual descending theory of government.'

'.......these numberless associations, unions, fraternities, communities, colleges, and so on, appeared as the answer to a natural urge of men to combine themselves into larger units. They pursued, partly, aims of self-preservation, partly, what would nowadays be called mutual insurances, partly, sectional interests - but, whatever their aim, the unions provided, so to speak, a shelter for the individual.But the organisation and structure of  these  associations was based on the ascending theory of government: it was they, the members themselves, who managed their own affairs without any direction 'from above': times of ploughing, harvesting, and fallowing were fixed by the village community itself, which also arranged for the policing of the fields. Water supply, utilization of  pastoral lands, the use to be made of rivers, wells, brooks, etc., compensation for damage to crops by cattle or fire, for damage to woods by unlicenced timbering, and so on, were subjects of regulations made by the community itself. The same applied to quarries, smithies, tileries, potteries, where working conditions were fixed. The mechanics by which the 'officers' of the village community came to be created were simple enough, and yet, incontrovertibly, proved the ever active urge to self-government.'