Washington And Sun Yat-sen's Constitution Thought Comparison Research

Constitution thinking refers to a theory system which includes the understanding of the constitution’s status as the fundamental law, using the constitution regulating the state power, that is regulating the source, configuration and operation of the state power and so on, and protecting the fundamental rights of the citizens. The dominant constitution thought in a country has an extremely important role and influence in the formulation and implementation of this country’s constitution.Washington and Sun Yat-sen were respectively the leader of the revolution of China and the United States, who were both influenced by Western constitutional theory, and they both advocated establishing a Democratic Republic based on the Constitution. However, there is a huge difference between their constitutional thinking. And due to the influence and constrains of various subjective and objective reasons, the constitutional development of the two countries under their leadership embarked on two very different ways under their leadership. Under the leadership of Washington the North American colonies won the independent status. Meanwhile, Washington also laid a solid foundation for long-term goal of constitutional development of the United States of America, thus ended the hostile and chaotic situation of North American states. Both of them have made the United States embarked on a road of unity and prosperity. On the contrast, although the Chinese revolution, under Sun Yat-sen leadership, overthrew the Qing government ruled China for many years and ended the feudal autocracy continued in China for more two thousand years, and established the Republic of China. The fruit of the revolution was quickly captured by Yuan Shikai. China not only failed to embarked on the road of constitutional development, but fell into the years of the warlords. Thus Sun Yat-sen’s ideal of Democratic Republic could not be realized. The strong contrast aroused the author’s keen interest. This paper attempts, from the constitutional jurisprudence, history and law history angles and using the method of comprehensive analysis, to compare the constitutional thought of the Washington and Sun Yat-sen and analyze the causes, hoping to be able to provide reflection and inspiration for our current constitutional construction. This article is divided into four parts. The first part explains some concepts of constitutional jurisprudence, such as constitution and constitutional thought, in order to provide a theoretical basis for further interpretation of the constitutional thought of Washington and Sun Yat-sen. The second part focused on systematic and comprehensive comparative analysis of Washington and Sun Yat-sen’s constitutional thought from four aspects, including their understanding of the fundamental status of the constitution, their power concept under the constitutional framework, their design for the country’s form, and their attitude towards political parties. The third part conducts a comprehensive comparison and analysis of the reasons, which impact the formation and development of Washington and Sun Yat-sen’s constitutional thought, from the objective aspect and the subjective aspect. The last part, which is on the basis of the three parts mentioned before, analyzes the inspiration and reference for our constitutional construction. And the inspiration is that, in the process of constitutional construction, we should make every effort to create a good social conditions and social atmosphere, in order to foster and form our people’s constitutional ideas and the constitutional concept. Thus people can recognize and accept the constitutional philosophy and constitutional culture, and know how to use the constitution to restrain government power and protect their own rights. What’s more, they can provide a strong driving force for the promotion of constitutional construction.