Conservative Political Party And The Political System In The Republic Of China 1912-1913: Chinputang's Political Participation And Its Interaction With Kuomintang

In the early years of Republic of China, Western Parliament way of party politics was first tried. Around the first session of Congress convenes, each political power set up the political party or political association in abundance. In the complex combination process, Gradually formed the Kuomintang headed by Sun Yat-Sen, Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren and the Chinputang headed by Liang Qichao, Tang Hualong. Unlike the Chinputang, the Kuomintang came out a more aggressive and innovative character, which in turn led to the confrontation between the two parties which was similar to the western political parties configuration. Virtually, the two opposite parties may conduct perfect party politics. The system of checks and balance in the parliament could not only facilitate establishing and developing constitution, but also achieve surveillance function upon the government. However, owing to the superficial cognition of parliamentary and party, the two parties failed to reach a compromise in developing democracy. Instead, they kept confronting each other and became enemies. This in turn made it possible for the bureaucratizes and warlords, such as Yuan Shikai, to achieve their purposes of tramping legislation and destroying democracy. Yuan repossessed the political power; he then dismissed the Kuomintang and the parliament. This finally led to the failure of the trial of parliamentary and party government.In virtue of some historical reasons, the domestic academia leaned to research the comparatively radical revolutionary parties, rather than focusing on the constructive functions on modern China's politics which were brought by the 'conservative' constitutional parties. Most of the scholars held a negative attitude toward these constitutionalism advocates. In fact, 'radical' and 'conservative' belong to an ' antinomy' political category. They stand against each other formally, whereas they possess the same value and verity.This article takes the Chinputang as a case study, as well as its predecessors--the Republican Party, the Unification Party and the Democratic Party. It emphasizes the political characteristic of the 'conservative' party in terms of the specific historical environment in the Republic of China 1912-1913. By analyzing the foundation of the Chinputang, the political programmed, the establishment of the party policies, the relationship with Yuan Shikai, as well as the complicated political activities against Kuomintang, the article tries to display the confrontation of different political powers as well as the growth and decline of these power, so that we can achieve an extensive comprehension of the political history and party politics which conducted in the Republic of China 1912-1913...