A Research On The Local Self-government Of Guangdong Province In The Late Qing Dynasty

Local self-government was a kind of regional administrative system against the centralism politics, which was set up by the rising capitalists who opposed monarchism and wanted to share the political rights. During the late Qing Dynasty, due to the dual promotion of the government and the society, the local self-government, as "the foundation of the constitutionalism", underwent the phases from theory agitation to political practice, from sporadic tests to a national scale advocated by government, which lasted until the early years of the Republican China. Taking Guangdong Province as an instance, the author sorted out the promotion of the Guangdong local self-government in the late Qing Dynasty thoroughly and discussed the tentative implementation of political democratization on this basis as well as its influence on the local political operation and social development in Guangdong Province.The paper is divided into five parts. The first part introduces the background of local self-government in Guangdong Province. The development of national capitalism in Guangdong and the boom of capitalized esquires provided economic and class bases; The spread of the idea of local self-government made spiritual preparations for its implementation; The turbulent local society in Guangdong made the implementation of local self-government quite essential. The second part deals with the beginning of the Guangdong local self-government, mainly its tentative implementation and the case study of Guangdong local self-government research society. The third part explains the implementation of localself-government in Guangdong focusing on the operation of local self-government at the level of province. The forth part inquires into the restricting factors in the implementation of local self-government in Guangdong. Bureaucratic control, financial difficulties and the shortsightedness of the common people made the implementation of local self-government difficult and inefficient. Moreover the monopolization of cultural resources by the government, political corruption and the social turmoil also blocked its positive operation. The fifth part deals with the influence of local self-government in Guangdong Province. From the perspectives of political operation and social development, the author analyses its positive influence and existing problems.