The First Session Of Congress To Join The Constitution, And The Local System

Territorialism, the relationship between central and local government, had beenone of the main issues that people noted and argued in the process of enactingconstitution in the first session of Congress during the early Republic. Researching itcan help us to better understand those different opinions of the congressmen as well asthe interests represented by the two parties, the domestic political environment of thetime, the major dispute when Congress enacted a constitution and the legislativeprocess, thus to reveal the inevitable correlation among such struggles as the intereststruggles of different clans, the power struggles of warlords, and the struggles ofimperialist for their interests in China, as well as the failure of the constitutional wayin Early Republic.The thesis first discusses the statement and shelving of the territorialism beforeand after the constitution was drafted. Since the opposition factors disagreed andYuan Shikai dissolved the Congress, the discussion for the issue was suspended.Congress was restored for the Constitution in 1916, and when the issue ofterritorialism was discussed again, the dispute between the side of approval and theside of opposition was very furious. As Duan Qirui and Li Yuanhong disputed overthe right to interfere in the army, the Congress was dissolved again, leading to noconclusion. Congress was restored for the second time in 1922, the same issue wasdiscussed again and was written into the Constitution eventually. But the Constitution,which had been formulated for 11 years, was not implemented due to the first sessionof congress was dissolved for the third time, therefore, the Constitution in EarlyRepublic ended in failure. Finally, the thesis discusses the hardship to enact theconstitution in the early years of the Republic and the basic reasons of its failure.The thesis consists of three parts: the introduction, the body of three chapters andthe conclusion. The first chapter discusses the statement and shelving of theterritorialism entering Constitution as well as the reason of being shelved; the secondchapter deals with the dispute process and the results of the territorialism enteringConstitution after the Congress was restored in 1916; ChapterⅢdiscusses the issue of territorialism being written into the Constitution and the end of the Congress; andthe epilogue consists of the conclusions and the revelations.