Research On The Controversy Of Responsibility Cabinet System In The Early Republic Of China(1912-1914)

The responsible cabinet system is one of the types of democratic republican polity,and it is an important part of the exploration process of modern Chinese government.During the early years of the Republic of China(1912-1914),there was a debate about which polity should be implement in the future.The responsible cabinet system had attracted the attention of many disciplines,the main research contents of the responsible cabinet system in the early Republic of China includes the responsible cabinet system provided for in the text of the Constitution,the operation and evaluation of the responsible cabinet system,the debate between the responsible cabinet system and the presidential system,the exploration of the responsible cabinet system in the Qing court,and the political party cabinet.Although these contents cover the different aspects of the study of the responsible cabinet system,there is a lack of systematic and holistic research on the debate between different plans of the responsible cabinet system.Based on this,this study will focus on the debate among the advocates of the responsible cabinet system,in order to show the overall view of the responsible cabinet system advocates on the responsible cabinet system during this period and the problems faced by the construction of the responsible cabinet system.The core task of this paper is to clarify the historical background of the controversy over the responsible cabinet system,present the debate between the cabinet and the president,the relationship between the cabinet and the Congress,and the relationship between the cabinet and political parties,and discuss the value and limitations of the responsible cabinet system in the early Republic of China,aiming to deepen the understanding of the responsible cabinet system from the perspective of combining political science and history.In this way,we can not only further expand the research on the responsible cabinet system in the Republic of China,but also provide some help for the study of the political system in modern China.In the early days of the Republic of China,the controversy over the responsible cabinet system had its own unique background of the times,and it was precisely this background that prompted the political figures active in the ideological circles to put forward the political strategy for the construction of the responsible cabinet system when observing and thinking about the problems of China’s political system,and it was precisely in the conflict of ideas and debates that they highlighted their own political ideas and thinking about the theme of the times.Before the establishment of the Republic of China,the propaganda and exploration of the idea of the responsible cabinet system and the debate within the League on the types of polity laid a certain ideological foundation for the debate on the responsible cabinet system in 1912-1914.Despite the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China stipulates for a responsible cabinet system,since the law is not a formal constitution and the responsible cabinet system provided for is incomplete,this provides room for subsequent debates on the responsible cabinet system.During the period 1912-1914,China had frequent changes of government and military crises in domestic affairs,serious frontier crises and international borrowing problems in foreign affairs,and the political situation of internal and external troubles prompted the advocates of the responsible cabinet system to deal with these practical problems when constructing the form of government.Thinkers and politicians at the time regarded the responsible cabinet system as an important way to build a strong government,and formed a responsible cabinet system corresponding to the presidential system.Faced with the fact that the presidency and the majority of the cabinet seats are controlled by the Beiyang warlord faction,how to deal with the relationship between the cabinet and the president had become an important part of the debate among the advocates of the responsible cabinet system.The political forces represented by the Beiyang warlord faction had criticized the responsible cabinet system and strongly advocated the expansion of the president’s authority,and some advocates of the presidential system had also criticized the responsible cabinet system in response to the political proposition of the Beiyang warlord faction.In terms of their political attitude toward the president,some advocates of the responsible cabinet system called for further regulation of the president’s powers to prevent the emergence of a situation of personal autocracy from the perspective of comparing the responsible cabinet system with the presidential system,while the other part of the advocates of the responsible cabinet system demand that the president be given some executive power from the perspective of enlightened autocracy,meritocracy,and general public psychology.The League-Kuomintang people believed that the absence of the president was an inherent requirement of the responsible cabinet system,and that the establishment of a sound responsible cabinet system would inevitably require the strengthening of the power of the cabinet organs to make them in the position of the administrative center of the state,and that the relationship between the cabinet and the president should be further clarified through the establishment of a perfect counter-signature system.Progressives and others advocated a reconciliation of the ideal of a responsible cabinet system with realpolitik,and required the cabinet to share power with the president in the setting of executive power.The relationship between the cabinet and the congress is also the relationship between the executive power and the legislature power,and the relationship between the two was mainly in the debate reflected whether to establish a cabinet system with strong legislative power,or to pursue a cabinet system that balances the executive and legislative powers in the early days of the Republic of China."Sovereignty resides in the people" and "sovereignty resides in the country" are the two logical starting points for the design of the responsible cabinet system.The advocates of the responsible cabinet system,represented by the League and the Kuomintang,from the "Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China" to the "Constitution of the Temple of Heaven",are pursuing a strong legislative responsibility cabinet system in which the parliament is supreme,while Liang Qichao,Wu Guanyin and others seek to construct a responsible cabinet system in which the cabinet and the congress check and balance each other.The advocates of the political party cabinet,represented by Song Jiaoren and Zhang Shizhao,advocated that a political party cabinet should be established in the early days of the Republic of China,and believed that the political party cabinet was the ultimate organizational form of the responsible cabinet system.The Beiyang warlords and the Progressives questioned the advocates of party cabinets,with the former advocating "non-partyism" and the latter arguing that the establishment of a mixed cabinet was a realistic option.In response to the doubts,the advocates of the political party cabinet explained the advantages of building a political party cabinet in three aspects: it is conducive to preventing personal autocracy,it is conducive to government stability,and it is conducive to building a strong government.The controversy over the responsible cabinet system has certain value,mainly because it provided different plans for the founding of modern China,enriched the content of China’s modern polity thought,and promoted the development of China’s modern democratic thought to a certain extent.In addition,this study argues that the controversy over the responsible cabinet system during this period has the limitations of institutional design ignoring China’s specific national conditions and being coerced by political struggles.Looking at the 1912-1914 controversy over the responsible cabinet system from a modern perspective,it is even more important to learn the historical lessons that the transplantation of the system copied from the Western political system is doomed to failure and the capitalist road is impossible to China.