Evolution Of Democratic Ideology From The Period Of The Reform Movement Of 1898 To The May 4th Movement

The period of the Reform Movement of 1898 to the May 4th Movement was the time for the modern democratic ideology to form,mature and develop.The reformists,revolutionaries and radical democrats formed ideas of every description to save the nation and to build China into a powerful country thanks to the differences of their social foundation and the differences of the concrete conditions facing them,making their own choice while learning from the Western democratic system and thought.Reformists favouved the realization of the constitutional monarchy within the existing system,doing a lot of enlightening work in democracy.However,their democratic thought contained large quantities of feudal colour.The revolutionary group maintained that the feudal revolutionary autocracy should be overthrown and the democratic republic should be founded,doing beneficial exploration concerning the democratic system tallying with the Chinese national condition.Their democratic thought contained less feudal colour.They paid excessive attention to the construction of the system,but they did not disseminated the democratic thought in depth and in down-to-earth manner,just as reformists did.Radical democrats'westernization was the highest,and they broke with the ideology and culture of the feudal autocracy thoroughly through the New Culture Movement which they aroused,They spread the Western democratic thought until they got to the heart of hearts - individualism and individual emancipation. So they counteracted the weakness of refsormists and revolutionary group in democratic enlightening work,so that they propelled the ideological emancipation to the climax.The core of the democratic thoughts of three different schools was about what kind of democratic system would be founded in China,around which theevolution of the democratic thought emerged the following features:democracy became the aim by itself from the means of the salvation of the nation.In the early period,reformists only paid attention to one-sided propaganda of the Western political system,but overlooked its ideological foundation,Now they shifted gradually to lay equal stress on the construction of system and ideology,and further they paid more and more attention to ideological consturction.The connotation of democracy became rich and generous,while the extention of democracy enlarged step by step.The objects of the democratic propaganda transferred from the upper-class society to the lower strata of society.The manifestation to learn from the West became the continuity from the easy to the difficult and from the outside to the inside.The relation between democracy and feudal outocrcy appeared a process,in which democacy contacted feudal autocracy till it broke with feadal autocracy.The democratic ideology of three different schools brought about powerful motive force for the development of Chinese history.Yet owing to the cause of class status and the times,they had their own limitation.Today research into the evolution of democratic ideology from the period of the Reform Movement of 1898 to the May 4th Movement is of important academic value and politically referential significance.