Feudalism?

The other day, I heard a fun story on NPR about the tiny island of Sark in the English Channel. Sark is technically the private property of the Queen of England but not part of the United Kingdom. Sark has long been regarded as the last bastion of European feudalism. That's right: I said "feudalism." You see, many of the laws governing land ownership, rights, and representation are little changed since they were enacted in 1565. The inhabitants of Sark (Sarkans? Sarkians? Sarkites?) have seemed to be quite happy with the setup. Last Wednesday, however, Sark finally bowed to pressure from the European Convention on Human Rights and embraced a wee bit of democracy. You should listen to the NPR piece. It's very interesting.