Development Of Constitutional Thoughts And Imitating Operation Of Constitutionalism

Tracing back to the course of our practice of Constitutionalism is helpful for the current democratic construction.The beginning of the course is the Preparation for Constitutionalism in last years of Qing Dynasty. Taking a wide view of the measures for constitutionalism, they created lots of " first" in the history of Chinese political system and promoted the process of Chinese democratization. Though it is not the full sense of democracy, the concrete measures this movement taken did break the autocratic system, and leaded us to take a further step to the modern democracy.After the Opium War, Chinese had constantly sought for the ways of saving nation. Some of them had noticed that political system of western world was essential for the state prosperity. But it was failed to arouse sufficient attention of the country. Japan-Russia war offered a opportunity for democratic reform. The pressure of Constitutionalists and Revolutionaries had stimulated and promoted the implementation of constitutional reform the Qing . It is the external factors. And for the Internal part, Qing ruling group is the practice of democracy and reformers, their roles should not be ignored.As the range of the Preparation for Constitutionalism is quite wide, of course, resistance and the difficulty it faces is also great. Democracy initiatives consists mainly of the establishment of the Local Advisory Bureau, Central Advisory Council, the Responsible Cabinet, and also including the promulgation of "Imperial Constitution Outline" , the "Constitution of the major tenets of 19" , and the bureaucratic reform. This article mainly talk about the relations between the thoughts of Constitutionalism and the Preparation for Constitutionalism, and analyze the property, position, function of the Central Advisory Council, the Responsible Cabinet and "Imperial Constitution Outline". All of these were a directly practice of transplantation of western parliament. Maybe it was not exactly what it was in the west, but it was important indicator of political openness of Qing court of which the meaning and value were still very precious. The Responsible Cabinet became a "royal cabinet", however, the royal members is not entirely "fatuous", some of them had a open side that they did in favor of the imitating operation of Constitutionalism, and of course, when it did not harm their interests. The formulation and promulgation of "Imperial Constitution Outline" and some relevant laws was the introduction of China's legal system, after it, The traditional feudal monarchy began to be restricted and the right of general public to be protected. These were an significant symbol of China's legalization. The Constitutional Compilation Bureau was also play an essential part of the constitutional reform. What is more important is that, the imitating operation of constitutionalism expanded the spread of democratic ideas, which has produced a far-reaching impact on Republic of China and even today. Throughout the process of democratic reform and its achievements, it could not be concluded as a fraud, because it had indeed leaded the traditional China into the way of modernization and promoted the transition from the feudal autocratic system to the modern democracy. The opinion of "fraud" does not conform to the materialism and dialectics.