The Creating And Changing Of The Tax-sharing System In The Context Of Constitutionalism During Late Qing And Early Republic Period

As an important content of constitutional research, finance itself is a constitutional issue. In tax country, the key to partitioning the financial power between central and local is the division of tax authority, which represented as tax-sharing system on institutional aspect. Internal and external problems on politic, heavy economic burden, and the cross swords of traditional Chinese culture and Western right ideological, provided a vast proving ground from Late Qing to Early Republic Period. Based on historical literature and reviewed on thought and institutional levels, this thesis study the evolution of tax-sharing system which derived from western financial ideology that developed in different modes of constitutionalism, aiming at seeking a survival road of tax-sharing system in Chinese soil, expecting to play a part in reforming the tax-sharing system and straighten out the relationship between central and local.Excepting from introduction, this paper consists of four parts ,approximating 37433 words.The first part describes the creation process of the tax-sharing system at Late Qing. In the background of increasing local power , fading centralized taxation system and the reform of tribal political, modern western financial thoughts spread to our country with the upsurge of"the introduction of western learning to China". On the effect of political reform and local autonomy idea, the public voice of changing centralization and dividing financial power between central and local followed behind. Qing government made a plan of redefining national tax and local tax and did financial clearing to make preparations for concluding national tax and local tax. Then there were much controversy between central and local,including the order and classification criterion of national tax and local tax making, and the hierarchy of local tax. So there was no consensus opinion.The second part describes the establishment of the tax-sharing system at the previous period of Northern Warlords Government. After the 1911 revolution, with the federalism thought prevailing, most independent provinces called for defining central finance and local finance, and performing Regional Autonomy.Through the discussion at Late Qing, the tax-sharing ideology deepened gradually. On the basic of setting up specialized agencies such as Finance Investigation Commission, the central government published Draft of National Tax and Local Tax Division. The draft not only made a partition at that time and for the future, but also made a restriction on local surtax and special tax. It is the first tax-sharing in Chinese history. Nevertheless, due to excessive centralization, this division was resisted by local government. Then President Yuan modified Provisional Constitution and overwhelmed autonomy. The tax-sharing system was canceled.The third part describes the vicissitude of tax-sharing system at mid-late Northern Warlords Government. After the national protection movement, the whole country presented a plural political pattern. Finance fell into a mess, so the tax-sharing system was interrupted. After 1920, the federalism thought developed into united-province autonomy movement. With the booming development of the province and constitution movement, the tax-sharing system also resurged. In the context of recovering legal system, Constitution of Republic of China in 1923 clarified national tax and province tax and affirmed tax power of province and country, which included in the Captions of National Sovereignty and Local System, in the constitutional form for the first time. But restricted by military decentralization between central warlords and local warlords, the tax-sharing system could not enforced as the Constitution designed.The fourth part is an evaluation of the tax-sharing system. In the movement of constitutionalism from the constitutional preparation at Late Qing to the Period of Northern Warlords Government, the tax-sharing system had went through a tortuous process. In spite of make an advancement on the finance and taxation system of China, but the tax-sharing system was damaged many a time, owing to lack of the prestige of rule of law, appropriate scale of distribution, and democracy. Currently, in the framework of constitution regime, we must regress to the native, strengthen constitutional thinking of our ruling party,delegating power properly on the premise of sticking to state unity, and integrate social forces, so as to perfect the tax-sharing system and balance the relationship between central and local.