Research On Hunan Province Parliament Under Constitution (1922-1926)

After the opium war, with the introduction of western constitutional ideas and political changes in late qing dynasty, the local council system in China got tortuous development。Local governors’coming to power in the late Qing dynasty and the development of local autonomy, which created conditions for the rise of local representative institutions such as Provincial Consultative and the Advisory Council and then aggravated the disintegration of Qing dynasty. The warlord chaos of early Republic of China and the weak centralization of central government, as well as the development of the joint-provinces autonomy movement and the spread of ideology, brought the wind of provincial constitution across all the mainland. On the two stages, Hunan province was both a trend first and its local council practice made a typical significance. In need for propaganda, Hunan faction warlords enacted the only provincial constitution established by the local people at that time, which make a combination of the ideal constitutional rights and the instrumental constitutional view together. The research of the early parliamentary system in Hunan province helps us understand the actual situation of the local council of China in early modern times and learn the lessons from the failure of western democracy transplanted.This paper mainly composed by five chapters.Chapter one is the introduction.This part introduces the background and significance of this paper, research status about the theme at home and abroad and the innovationThe second chapter, introduces the times and ideological background of the rise of parliamentary political in Hunan in late Qing dynasty and mainly deals with three questions:the consciousness of Hunan province, the emergence of the new social strata with the formation of the early modernization, and the transmission of ideology and practice of local representativeChapter Three introduced the general situation of Hunan province parliament operation from1922to1926, including1922’s provincial council elections, identity analysis of elected members and parliamentary bill analysis;The fourth chapter constructed two focuses from the bills of Hunan province parliament:foreign military matters, and the people’s livelihood development along with economic security. And then further points out that Hunan province Constitution System which gained huge legitimacy through them, was finally suffering for the same reason.Chapter five is the thesis conclusion. The provincial parliament constitution power was modified in1924and two years later came into abolishment by the Northern Expeditionary Army. The four years’work of parliament plays a very important role in China’s modern constitutional history. It’s success and failure are all worth a good summary.