The Local Self-government Of Henan Province In Late Qing And The Early Republican China

Local self-government was a kind of regional administrative system set up by the rising capitalists who opposed monarchism and wanted to share the political rights. During the late Qing Dynasty, local self-government, as "the footstone of the Constitution Reform", began to be carried out by the capitalists under the dual promotion of the government and the society. It continued until the early years of the Republican China and experienced the phrases as follows: from theory agitation to political practice; from trying it in dribs and drabs to applying it by the government in the whole country. The author, taken Henan Province as an instance, sorts out the whole process of the local self-government thoroughly and discusses the influence of this political democratization reform on the operation of the local politics and social development in Henan Province. The paper is divided into four parts: The first part introduces the background of local self-government in Henan Province. Firstly the gentry enlarged their leading role over the local affairs further during the Taiping Revolution. Secondly after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, a crop of new intellectuals who accepted capitalist democratic thoughts appeared with the advent of national capitalism in Henan; and at the same time local self-government trend of thoughts were running high gradually. Much as other provinces in China, Henan began to prepare for the local self-government according to the central commanding of the Qing government. The second part explains the practice of local self-government in Henan, focusing on the operation of local self-government at the level of province and all institutions at the basic levels. The third part inquires into the inhabiting factors in the implementation of local self-government in Henan. Bureaucratic control, financial difficulties and the shortsightedness of the common people made local self-government in trouble and couldn't attain the expected results. Besides local self-government, as a political modernization reform, didn't get response from the local society because of the weakness of the national capitalists in Henan . And the local self-government was also hold back by the rogue power. The fourth part analyses the influence of local self-gocernment in Henan Province. The pursuance of local autonomy in Henan Province evoked the expansion of the traditional power of the gentry on a large scale which produced complex and profound influence over the development of local politics. On the other side, this process ushered in the beginning of administrative democratization at the basic level on the thought and practice aspects.