The Qing Court Idea And Practice Of Constitutional Reform

In the past academic research, the Qing governmentConstitutional Reform was characterized the "scam" to maintain theorder of the feudal autocratic rule in a very long time. However, this"scam theory" existing in the academic circles is not accord withtheoretical logic, also does not accord with the facts of history. It is aone-sided doctrine. In fact, the Qing government in the constitutionalreform process has been the "realize constitutionalism" as their trueobjectives of the reform, and various aspects of the constitutionalreform have carried out systematic planning and comprehensivepractice. Although, the Qing government Constitutional Reformultimately failed because of the demise of the Qing Empire, but its initialachievement provide a valuable resource for the continueddevelopment of the Chinese constitutional. Nowadays, through usingthe Qing government Constitutional Reform experience and lessons toguide the construction of constitutional government in China still has avery important significance.This thesis mainly discusses the planning and design of the Qinggovernment Constitutional Reform and the practice of the Qinggovernment Constitutional Reform. The thesis is divided into fivechapters, the content of each chapter are as follows:The first chapter deals with themes of “the concept of constitutionaland the understanding and expression of the Qing government onconstitutional”. The first section of this chapter describes the author’sviewpoint of the constitutional concept, and takes it as the startingpoint of the relevant theories in this thesis. The second section of thischapter introduces the Qing government’s understanding andexpression of constitutional concept in the constitutional reform.The second chapter deals with themes of “Planning programming of the reform of the Qing government Constitutional Reform”. The firstsection of this chapter describes the analysis of the situation made bythe Qing government in the constitutional reform. The second sectiondiscusses the inevitability and necessity of the preparation period thatwas set by the Qing government for constitutional reform. The thirdsection introduces the steps planning of preparation of the Qinggovernment Constitutional Reform.The third chapter deals with themes of “implementation andassessment of the Qing government constitutional reform”. The firstsection of this chapter analyzes the implementation mechanism of theQing government in the constitutional reform. The second section of thischapter introduces a special mechanism to apply for constitutionalreform, which is created by the Qing government for theimplementation of constitutional reform. The third section of this chapterdiscusses the assessment of the Qing government ConstitutionalReform.The fourth chapter deals with themes of “the main contents andrelated results of the Qing government Constitutional Reform”. The firstsection of this chapter introduces the construction of the constitutionalinstruments and legal system in the Qing government ConstitutionalReform. The second section of this chapter describes the constructionof the parliamentary system and local autonomy in the Qinggovernment Constitutional Reform. The third section of this chapterdescribes the activities relating to constitutional reform, such as EFA,census and financial administration.The fifth chapter deals with themes of “evaluation and reference ofthe Qing government Constitutional Reform”. The first section of thischapter introduces my overall evaluation of the Qing governmentConstitutional Reform. The second section of this chapter describes theexperience and lessons that we can learn from the Qing government Constitutional Reform, and the experience and lessons can be used toguide contemporary Chinese Constitutional Construction.