On The Association Policy And The Mass Movement Control Of The Nanjing National Government(1927-1937)

In April1927，the Nanjing national government was established. For the stabilityof regime and maintaining the KMT ruling domination, when the KMT came intopower, its political program and policy were adjusted to construct the system thatone-party dictatorship and strengthen the penetration and expansion of the state powerin society accordingly, in order to establish a more effective social control mechanismto the public association and incorporate them into the state system. In order to controlthe people, the Nanjing national government conducted a comprehensive rectificationand strict control to the public association according to their occupation andgeographical situation, in order to control the society by the control to the publicassociation. From the historical point of view, the Nanjing national government’spublic controlling by the public association is not only a society control way for thestate, to a certain extent, also reflects its trying on social governance by modernmanagement mode, but also a social reform and reconstruction to the grassrootsassociation. After the establishment of the Nanjing government, it strengthened itspower on civilians infiltration and control by association legislation and public trainingthe two “hard and soft” way. Its target is digesting the revolutionary of mass movement,weakening the citizens’ political awareness, limiting the activity field, so that make thepublic association and people movement corresponds to the ideology that the KMT asa ruling party and the people really become the people under the three people’sprinciples.In the principle of party building the government, the KMT government hasformulated and promulgated a series of laws and regulations, in order to regulate andcontrol the public association by the relevant laws to control the people, reconstruct thesocial to consolidate the regime, build a frame for the public activities, and use the law to restrict and regulate the boundaries of public activity space. From the view of theorder of priority for the social control, the association legislation had clear direction,large amount, wide covering range, strong pertinence, reflecting the unities of theKMT government’s macro requirement to consolidate the ruling domination and themicro requirement to control the social. From the view of the development of theeconomy, normative association development, stable social order, the nationalgovernment’s legislation of association played a certain positive role. By the legislationof association, the KMT government can control the distribution of association,monitor their activities, guide the development direction for the association, set thesystem space for the association operation, and represent the basic trends of thelegislation of association in China at that context of the social conditions. But on thewhole, the nature of the Nanjing national government determined the birth defect ofthe association legislation. Because of the unilateral intent to control people it was hardto build a harmonious relationship among the party, government and society. Underthese circumstances, the public communities only were placed in a minor position, as aresult that the normal development track was distorted. Finally the relationship wasbroken that the party and people joined forces formed during the Northern Expedition.After the Nanjing national government was established, on one hand the Nanjingnational government controlled the people with law as the“hard control”, on the otherhand built the mainstream ideology as the “soft control” with the Three People’sPrinciples as the core actively, and strengthened the indoctrination of the ThreePeople’s Principles to the people by the way of training them, in order to the effectivesocial control from the external legal control to the inner thoughts normalized.On the4th Plenum of the2nd KMT Central Committee, the farmers department,the workers department, the youth department, the businessman departments, thewomen department, were removed, as a result that the ligament between the KMT andthe public was cut off. On the5th Plenum of the2nd KMT Central Committee and the3rd KMT party congress, the mass movement policy in the Great Revolution wasadjusted and changed further from the perspective of system. The policy changing process was completed from mobilization type in the revolutionary context tomanagement type under the concept of party government. The MKT systematicallyelaborated its mass movement scheme, defined the guiding principle of the massmovement, in order to instill its doctrines and platforms to the public, after the peopletrained proverbially at all levels of party and government organizations, make the"each force" change into the "group force", the "people force" change into the "partyforce". Therefore, in order to ensure the training purpose it also set up specialinstitutions (the Training Department and the Public Training Committee) to organizeand lead the to people’s training work, and stipulated from the guiding principles, thethought to the training plan and the training forms, the methods used for training andtraining materials clearly and specifically, at the same time, stipulated the relationshipand the division between the party and government departments that in the trainingclearly that for the mass organizations, guided by the party, supervised by thegovernment, controlled by the dual governance while the party power higher than thegovernment, in order to ensure the implementation of the policy that "Governing theCountry Through the Party”. In particular, in the public training, the KMT put moreattention on "three people’s principles" indoctrination and penetration to the people, inorder to hope to cope with the challenge to its authority from the Communist Party ofChina and acquire immunity on one hand, meanwhile mobilize and organize the broadmass against the more serious aggression from Japan effectively on the other hand. Itindicated that special attention was given to the "three people’s principles" after theKMT held power in order to make the state and society gripped and the people worshipand pilgrimage it by all levels of party and government trained the people using theassociation as a tool.In the process that the KMT government controlling the association and thepublic it strengthened the penetration and control to the various association on insideand outside two respects. Outwardly governments at all levels strengthened opensupervision to the various types of association. At the same time, the KMTstrengthened the penetration by the secret organizations to the various types of association. Because the various contradictions and problems existed between the partyand the government, inevitably there were some control problems out of balance. Afterthe overall Anti-Japanese War broke out, The KMT government loosened the control tothe association somewhat and began to mobilize people for the war.Since the Republic of China, there was a social crisis in Chinese society that thelosing of the authority of the central government and the social anomie. While the statesocial control was very weak, with the form of association to control the society andthe public were an effective way and this also reflected one way that the nationalgovernment wanted to control the society as a form of modern state power. However,the control method that the KMT and its government used by the associationlegislation and public training the two “hard and soft” way only emphasized thecontrol to the public from the state machine, and the public devotion and support to thenational government, neglected even deprived the rights of citizens and the basicconditions for the survival. When the KMT came into power, its government began thealienation process with the people increasingly, while the support of the people that itwon during the war of resistance against Japan drained gradually, because of initiatingcivil war, the corruption and the policy divorced from the actual state of the Chinapublic. The government did not receive the expected result in the public control, andeventually failed in the way of "morale loss" and "people alienation" because of avariety of objective environment factors, its own reasons and historical traditions andso on.