Comparative Study Of Five Powers Constitution And The Separation Of Powers

Montesquieu’s "separation of powers" doctrine is a treasure of the history of human thought, which evolved from Locke’s concept of separation of powers. Being regarded as the bourgeois weapon to against the feudal autocratic centralization, “the separation of powers” is divided the state power into the legislative, judicial, administrative power, which are in mutual coordination and counterbalance. Montesquieu’s "separation of powers" doctrine has been widely adopted by the Western capitalist countries in constructing government agencies. Compared with the rule of medieval religious teachings, it is advanced and has played a positive role in the pursuit of human freedom and equality."Five Powers Constitution" was formed on the basis of Sun Yat-sen’s learning and references on western’s “separation of powers” and the system of examination and supervision in the Chinese feudal society. Since the Opium War, the Modern China was in domestic strife and foreign aggression, and Chinese people with lofty ideals embarked on a way to save the nation. In this trend of national salvation, as a great epochal revolutionary forerunner, Sun Yat-sen devoted his whole life to working on salvaging the country and people. His "five Powers Constitution" doctrine is a summary and reflection of his legal thought. Sun Yat-sen led the bourgeois revolution, overthrew the monarchy, and founded the Republic of China with perseverance. His legal thinking is also a huge asset, which is worthy of admiration by further generations. In addition, his wisdom and courage manifested in the process of democratic and ideal political system as well as the rational connotation of constitutional thought are deserved to be studied in further researches.Compared from the points of content of the doctrine, power configuration, cultural background and value of the constitutional, it is found that the impact of the Western and Chinese culture on the the two constitutional doctrine. The center of this dissertation is to reveal the differences of cultural connotations between the two thoughts. This paper selects the two theories: one is the representative of the Western Constitutional thought; the other is a kind of constitutional thinking once existed in the Chinese history, which both have strengths and weaknesses and have promoted the improvement of history. Therefore, they are both valuable asset of human thought. The aim of this thesis is to acquire lessons and experience from the history, and to make more contribution in the development of constitutional thought.