The Thoughts Of Political Compromise In Constitutional Crisis In Early Republican China

The thoughts of political compromise in Early Republican China represents a compromise path to transition to democracy. It is a significant subject in the history of political thoughts in Modern China for its deeply embedded wisdom of compromise and abundant frustrated lessons. The successful experience of Anglo-American democracy shows that compromise is indispensable and important in the transition to democracy, based on which, I make a historical review on this thoughts in this paper.Focusing on the problem of how to fulfill the transition to democracy in Early Republican China, and based on text-reading and historical analysis, I investigate the background, theoretical essence and ideological value of the thoughts of political compromise, and the historical reasons for its decline. According to Zou Dang "Full Win Game "theory, I analyses the basic characteristics of conflict in the political culture and the reasons for the decline of the thoughts. In this paper, I argue that the constitutional crisis in Early Republican China, largely results from the uncompromising behavior between Yuan Shi-K and Kuomintang. And I discuss the ideas of political compromise of Zhang Shi-zhao, Du Ya-quan, Liang Qi-chao, Zhang Dong-sun, Li Da-zhao, Li Jian-nong, then analyse the essence of the thoughts from the perspectives of the idea of value, the institution of constitution and the social basis. And I argue that the idea of value of the thoughts is the tolerance of compromise, gradual evolution and the liberty in Anglo-American tradition. The constitution, the party government and the separation of power build up a complete set of constitutional system. And society is the basis for political reform, especially civil society with a mass of middle class is the necessary social basis for political compromise. In the "all win game" between Yuan Shi-K and Kuomintang, "compromise Game" was overwhelmed in the radical era due to its moderate nature. The decline of thoughts represents not only that the path to transition transferred from gradual reforms to radical revolution, but also that the way of the liberalism transferred from the Anglo-American tradition to the Franco-Russian tradition in Early Republican China. In addition, there are more profound social and historical reasons for the decline of the thoughts of political compromise. Anglo-American has a unique social and historical conditions, such as feudal weak monarchy, multi-center order, pluralistic thoughts, tradition of rule by law, Balance-of-Power, and civil society, which brought about compromise. Different with Anglo-American, Chinese in Early Republican China had a political and cultural traditions, which are just appropriate for arising "full-win game" rather than the growth of political compromise, characterized with imperial autocracy, monistic order, monistic thought, tradition of rule by man, oriental societies of peasants, and none of Balance-of-Power.At the conclusion part of this paper, I fully affirme the value of the thoughts of political compromise in Early Republican China, suggest that the compromise and the suitable conditions for it are necessary for accomplishing the transition to democracy in China by getting out of the "all win game". Compromise is the necessary path to democracy.