From Zhengwen She To Chinese National Socialist Party Carsun Chang’s Idea And Practice On Party Politics(1907-1938)

As a famous politician and intellectual in the history of the Republic of China, Carsun Chang has shown his talent in the political arena as well as the academia. Because of this dual characteristic, the previous studies mainly focus on the intellectual history and explore the constitutional democracy, liberalism, socialism and New Confucianism. In contrast, inadequate attention has been paid to party politics, the path of Chang’s democratic constitutionalism, including the construction, explanation and practice of his idea on political parties. As a matter of fact, the notion of political parties has run through Chang’s lifelong pursuit of constitutionalism. During the remaking process of order in modern times, in order to achieve democratic constitutionalism and improve party politics, Carsun Chang has thought rationally in the institutional level and has participated in the practice of party building to fulfill his appeal for democratic constitutionalism. Hence, the thesis follows the chronological order as well as Chang’ notion and practice on party politics and focuses on Chang’s involvement in politics in the early20th century, his endeavors on party building and operation in the1930s, which refers to the period from his participation in a constitutional organization called Zhengwen She (Political Information Society), to the construction of Chinese National Socialist Party (CNSP).In a nutshell, the thesis would provide an inside perspective of the intellectuals’thinking, exploration and attempt on renovating China’s politics in an era of transformation.The thesis mainly consists of three parts. The first part, including chapter1and2, focuses on Carsun Chang’s choice of political stand, formation of the idea of party politics and initial attempt in practice in his early years. Chang attended Zhengwen She, a constitutional organization, in late Qing Dynasty. In the early years of the Republic of China, Chang started to form political parties. As to his political stand, when the disputes occurred among the "constitutionalists" and "revolutionists" in late Qing Dynasty, Chang clearly joined the former. One the one hand, by translating John Stuart Mill’s Theory of Representative Government, Chang learned from the Western political institutions and provided theoretical basis for the constitutional government. One the other hand, by joining in Zhengwen She, a political party like constitutional organization, Chang devoted himself into the practice of constitution movement. Under the republic system in the early years of the Republic of China, Chang’s idea on party politics initially formed. First of all, party politics is a prerequisite to democratic constitutionalism. Second, political parties serve as "tools for parliament competitions." In order to realize the political ideas, it is necessary to integrate the small parties to strengthen the party and compete with the opposing party in elections and legislative seats. In the practice if party politics, Chang participated in the formation of the "symposium on the construction of a republic" and the "Democratic Party."The second part includes Chapter3and4which investigates Carsun Chang’s introspections on the party politics and the bankruptcy of the constitutional government, as well as his political pursuits based on it, during the period that the Republican China had just been founded and the political situation was temporarily instable. At that time, although the newly founded government advocated "democracy" as its basic policy, democratic politics was not realized as the majority expected. Contrarily, consecutive struggles between political parties and the ministerial crises led to a severely disordered political environment. Chang thought about the reason of the bankruptcy of the constitutional government from the perspective of party politics. In his opinion the lack of modern concept of party politics is the key point. Both radical and rational parties had no idea on the participation and implementation of modern politics. During his journey to the European countries, Chang investigated the social background and revolution experiences of Germen and Russia. Then he followed the Germen Social Democratic Party and decided to build up an ideal party relying on law and gradually improvements. However the prerequisite of doing so is to educate people with political wisdoms. As a result, in1920s Chang made his way to the education aiming at the improvement of people’s political sophistication.The third part includes the last chapter which focuses on both Carsun Chang’s own thoughts on party system which differs from that of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Kuomintang (KMT), and the proper adjustments on democracy under nationwide crises. Discussions are developed based on Chang’s efforts throughout the construction of the CNSP. After the northern expedition, Kuomintang started to make the political tutelage. Dissatisfied with the situation that the party rights overcome the human rights, Chang created the CNSP in1932. And later, because of the changes in the political environment, Chang proposed the political mode of "party collaboration" and "national unity" to protect the nation’s benefits from the political struggles between parties so that the nation can oppose the threats from Japan and the nationwide crises. After the breakout of Anti-Japanese War, CNSP kept on participating in politics. And Chang made proper adjustments to meet the needs of anti-invasion while insisting on democratically party politics. In fact, following a nonviolent and gradually improvement political model, the CNSP made little influence in the nation’s politics while being isolated by the CPC and the KMT. But Chang’s thoughts and investigations on party politics and democratic politics as well as the political systems based on them are valuable references for today’s Chinese party constructions.