The Early Twentieth Century Inquiry Into Constitutional Thought - Political Modernization Of System Design

Dai Jitao, a well - known theorist of kuomintang, occupied an important place in the history of modern Chinese political thoughts. His thoery which was called Dai Jitaoism exercised great influence on the kuomintang government, laid the foundation for this government and played an important role in the Chinese modern history. Historians paid considerable attention to this theory. However, the situatiation before forming the theory was scarcely studied. In fact, Dai Jitaoism was a long - term result of his thoughts, so his early thoughts merited our attention. In the early part of the 20th century, Dai Jitao ' s thoughts, containing ample contents and being perfected with the advance of history, has a distinctive feature of the era. This thesis, divided into four parts, concentrates on his political thoughts centred on his early constitutional views.Part one probes in the change of his constitutional thought and its reasons in the early part of the 20th century. It points out that Dai Jitao could keep pace with the times and try to find the way to political modernization in China. After four years' study in Japan, he tended towards the idea of the dual -monarchy, but soon he went over to the monarchal - parliamentary system, and finally he became an earnest supporter of republicanism. From 1909 to 1911, his constitutional views saw two changes which had notable characteristics in the modern history of constitutional government in China. For this change, the thesis gives detailed reasons.part two mainly discusses his understanding of democratic Constitutionalism, which mainly included two parts: (1)Emphasizing the status and function of constitution, and designing the procedures of drawing up and revising a constitution; (2) Understanding five principlesof constitutionalism. The later is afocal point of the paper. In this paper, principles of constitutionalism are the principle of people' s sovereign, of respecting the rights of man, of separation of three powers and checks and balances; of rule by law , and of local autonomy.part three describes the form of government of democratic republic which is pursued by Dai Jitao.In the early days of republic of China, Dai Jitao's political ideal was to establish a democratic and constitutional government whose core was republican parliamentary system. He made every endeavor to constitute this system, including giving publicity to his ideal.Part four tries to evaluate impartially Dai Jitao s early constitutional views. We sum up it' s characteristics and point out it s status in the history of modern Chinese constitutional thoughts. Tne thesis fully affirms the fact that in his early years he could keep pace with the times; ITien it highly appraises the democracy and patriotism of his constitutional views; It points out anti - feudal and anti - dictatorial significance. Of course, the thesis also anlyzes the defects of his constitutional thought.