Concept And Construction Of The Parliamentary Politics In Late Qing Dynasty

Based on the analyses of the text of the constitutional regulations, the dissertation tries tofigure out the concepts, construct and its operation of the parliamentary politics in late Qingdynasty, as well as the reasons and the inspirations of its failure.Chapter one reviews the development of the theory of the parliamentary politics in lateQing dynasty, and provides the foundation of the common view on parliamentary politicsbetween the authorities and the popular. Drawing lessons from the tradition of “MING-BEN”thoughts, the elite among the common people believed, compare with the monarch, theparliamentary politics system was much easier to appeal the common people to win thecompetitions among state powers in the world, since China is not the center of the world anymore. But the authorities expected the following benefits from the parliamentary politicssystem: to accept the new political force; to prosper the economy; to condense the politicalviews on constitutional reform.Chapter two analyzes the institutional arrangement of the royal prerogatives in theparliamentary politics system in two ways:1.how the principle of “”was changedinto””by the reformers;2.how much the royal prerogatives had been given in to the citizenrights.Chapter three concerns on the schematic design of the parliament, including the disputeon the time of the parliament establishment, the limitation, process and the effect of theparliament power of Qing dynasty, and the constriction of the parliament. And makesconclusion that the parliament of Qing dynasty only could make suggestions instead of makethe final decisions, so that caused a lot of conflictions between the society and the monarch,who was supposed to be responsible for nothing.Chapter four discusses the plan of the administrative reform. The following issues hasbeen concerned, why the administrative reform was considered to be of the first importance inthe process of constitutional reform, what had been stripped down in the administrationsystem locally and centrally, how the autonomous rules worked in the county level.Chapter five describes the citizen participation in the politics. The research has beenfocused on the right to vote, the supervision by the public opinions, and the right to assembly,the dissertation points out that the process of constitutional reform of Qing dynasty was also a process to broaden the way of citizen participation in the politics. But being reluctant tobalance the ruling authority and the citizen rights, the imperial court was put into a dilemma.Chapter six explains the legal foundations of the parliamentary politics system, whichcontains the enact of the constitution, the reform of the judicial systems and the making oflaws.Chapter seven evaluates the historical functions of the parliamentary politics system ofQing dynasty, and also concludes its limitations and inspirations for the modern democraticconstruction.