Rationalization And Democratization

Modern state building is a dual development process of rational state construction and democratic state construction.Rationalized state construction is mainly manifested in political power construction or administrative construction,financial construction and military construction,which constitute the basic elements of state governance.The construction of a democratic state mainly focuses on the concept of democracy,democratic institutions and political participation,which can support the development of democracy.This paper mainly traces the process of rationalizing and democratizing of state construction promoted by the central government or local political forces in the Late Qing Dynasty,the Beiyang Government,the Nationalist Government,and the early New China,to explore the situation of rationalizing and democratizing of state construction in each period,so as to reveal why the state power was overthrown.It is found that the Late Qing government made great efforts to rationalize and democratize the state construction,and the achievement of rationalizing of state construction was greater than that of democratizing the national construction.The Qing Dynasty was finally overthrown due to the low degree of rationalization of state construction and the failed democratization of state construction.The Beiyang Government failed in the state construction of rational and democratic,which led to the increasing weakening of the authority in the central government.The regional state-building competition among the local political forces increased the local power,and the KMT finally gained the ruling power.The National Government attached great importance to rational state building and enhances its own authority and national strength.The National Government also tried to democratize,but continued to delay the constitutional process and insist on one-party rule,leading to a crisis of legitimacy.The CCP built up its strength by simultaneously rationalizing and democratizing the state building in its base areas,thus eventually overthrowing the Nationalist Government and establishing a New China.Some conclusions can be drawn from historical analysis.First,modern state construction must promote rational state building and democratic state construction at the same time.Simply carrying out rational state building cannot guarantee the long-term rule of state power even if great achievements are made.Second,the construction of democratic state should be based on rational state construction.Third,it is very important to rationalize the development strategy of rational state construction and democratic state construction,which has a great influence on the balanced development of both.Fourth,China mainly takes Japan,Europe and the United States as its teachers in modern state-building and learns from their experience in modern state building.Although China finally fails in democratization state-building,achieves great success in rational state-building in the end.Fifth,the CCP was able to seize power because the CCP insisted on promoting both rational and democratic state construction during the revolutionary period,and achieved balanced and effective development.Sixth,the CCP initially established the modern state between 1949 and 1956.Seventh,in promoting modern state-building,China should not only base itself on its national conditions,but also learn from foreign experience and draw on foreign resources.Eighth,at present,China’s modern state-building should pay more attention to the construction of a democratic country,conduct research on the theories of socialist democracy,strengthen the construction of democratic system and expand social and political participation.