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Initiation Of Constitutional Culture In Modern China And The Research Of Social And Political Transformation (1840-1949),

Posted on:2013-04-25Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Z C ZhangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1226330398498503Subject:Basic principles of Marxism
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Since1840, the process of Chinese Modernization has undergone the economic and political changes. Compared with the modernization in Japan and Russia, even in western countries, the social and political transformation of modern China is relatively slow and meets more difficulties, so that the suffering is more severe and lasting. Besides the invasion and plunder of the imperialists, such factors as the structure and cultural tradition in China cannot be ignored. The main aim of the dissertation is to combine the development of constitutional government culture with the transformation of modern China society and politics, taking the relationship among constitutional government, prosperity and national salvation as a principal line in the perspective of globalization. Therefore, the theories of each stage can be found out to explore the interaction between cultural development and social and political transformation. The study of these issues will be the background of choosing this topic and its academic value.There are seven chapters. The author explained the reason choosing the topic, summarized research, methodology, breakthrough and shortcomings, and listed the structure and main points in Introduction part; in the second chapter, the author analyzed the definition and development of constitutionalism based on the word origin and generalized three representative views of constitutional government, so the constitutional government culture has been put forward. In addition, the author further analyzed the features of constitutional government and stopped at constitutional government expectation in modern context; in the third chapter, the author mainly analyzed the formation factors and growing logic of constitutional government on the basis of elaborating culturalism and the definition, features and functions of constitutional government culture; in the fourth chapter, the author analyzed the transformation stage of society and politics from1840to1898, which focused on embryo of constitutional government culture and its improvement. Gestation of modern Chinese constitutional government culture, from the Opium War to Wuxu Reform Movement, is the beginning of another massive social and political transformation in Chinese society; in the fifth chapter, the author illustrated the transformation stage of society and politics from1898to1919, which focused on the sprout of constitutional government culture and moving to republic. The failure of Wuxu Reform Movement throttled general expectations of achieving prosperity through reform at that time. However, constitutional government culture became popular. Meanwhile, feudal monarchy was overthrown, and aspirations of republic were achieved, which marked the second social and political transformation in history of modern China; in the sixth chapter, the author described the transformation stage of society and politics from1919to1949, which focused on newly generated constitutional government culture and national construction with democracy. In a fierce political rivalry between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang, constitutional government culture developed with difficulty. The founding of the theory of Mao Zedong’s People’s democratic dictatorship indicated that constitutional government culture had come into being and led to the founding of People’s Republic of China, which showed the success of the third transformation in China. As to the concluding part, the author in seventh chapter explained the relationship between the development of constitutional government culture and the social and political transformation in China.The main points and conclusion includes the followings as:the social transformation in modern China is a kind of social and political transformation; the political transformation has stepped on the different way compared with their special road to development in western countries; the initial generation of constitutional government culture needs a long lasting process of historical evolution, along with the crash between the constitutional government culture and the traditional culture and the conflict between the constitutional government culture and the traditional political structure; the topics in different stages of political transformation were different. Combing the history and theory, the author finally drew a conclusion that the constitutional government culture and the social and political transformation were accompanied by and complemented each other, which were the tendency and the law of the development of the history.The breakthrough of this paper lay at the followings:1.The author was using a new studying perspective. It was an innovation and challenge to start research from the perspective of constitutional government and constitutional government culture. He had not found any article which focused on the study of transformation of modern society from the perspective of constitutional government culture among the existing researches. The researches into the social transformation from the perspective of economic changes, evolution of political system and human subjectivity began to involve in the comparison of initial generation of constitutional government culture between in China and in the western countries. While, some specific studies on the semantics, functions and restricting factors of development of constitutional government culture and its constructing path had been carried out with the comparison of views, which could be seen as a pioneer study in the field of current science of Chinese Constitutional Law, Comparative Constitutional Law and Political Culture.2.In research contents, the author tried to find a corresponding relationship between the embryo, sprout and generation of constitutional government culture and the three modern political transformations, which is the first trial in academic circle. Specifically speaking, the embryo of constitutional government culture is corresponding to the stage of political transformation with the theme of seeking improvement (1840-1898); the sprout of constitutional government culture is corresponding to the stage of political transformation with the theme of moving to republic (1898-1919); the initial generation constitutional government culture is corresponding to the stage of political transformation with the theme of constructing nation with democracy (1919-1949).From the perspective of the development of constitutional government culture in modern China and the processes of political transformation, the author drew the conclusion that the constitutional government culture and the social and political transformation were accompanied by and complemented each other, which were the tendency and the law of the development of the history. This is a theoretical innovation on the basis of some relevant principles, such as Science of Constitutional Law, Political Philosophy and Cultural Philosophy.3.Under the influence of constitutional government culture on the political transformation, the author believed that the constitutional government culture was an incentive and a foundation of the social and political transformation in modern China. The constitutional government culture helped to bring about and guide the social and political transformation in modern China. Constitutional government culture called on and predicted the direction of development of modern society in such aspects as social way of living, design of political system, public psychology and leaders’psychology. The political transformation required constitutional government culture being a foundation. What’s more, its connotation could be revised and richened constantly. And the social organization was the bridge of the political transformation and the generation of constitutional government culture.The shortcoming of this paper stayed at the point that the research into the foundamental theories of constitutional government culture was not systematic. The author didn’t collect enough historical materials of social organizations during the process of social and political transformation, and the description of its functions was not adequate.
Keywords/Search Tags:society of modern China, political transformation, constitutionalgovernment, Constitution, constitutional government culture
PDF Full Text Request
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