In examining the 1911 revolution, historians had the tendency to considerate it as a watershed, after which the Chinese population suddenly entered the modernity, sweeping away the past institutions and society. Indeed, labeled as “bourgeois” by the historians ideologically oriented toward the marxism-maoism, the revolution witnesses the presence of the seeds of the nation-State and of its institutions well before the revolt took place. In the context of the Constitutional reform formally beginning in 1908 with an imperial edict of the first day in the eighth month of Guangxu reign (including, among the other things, the Constitutional Principles and the Preparatory Program), was the local self-government, part of the reform, really implemented? The local institutions emerging at the eve of the 1911 revolution, disappeared immediately after the constitution of the new republican government? or perhaps they reflected the changing society in their participating in the political arena? The paper tries to answer these questions through the analysis of the activities of some local assemblies and councils in Sichuan province, since the beginning of the first electoral process at the local level in 1909, up to the first years of the new Republic of China. The analysis uses, among other materials, documents from the Provincial Archives and from the archives of some counties. Thus, the aim of the paper is to delineate continuity and discontinuity in the concerned period, investigating the disruptive effects on the political participation of local communities by the institutional changes introduced by the Qing dynasty in her twilight, as well as how the newly born republican institutions interpreted the occurred changes.
Self-government and 1911 in China
DE TOGNI, MONICA
2011-01-01
Abstract
In examining the 1911 revolution, historians had the tendency to considerate it as a watershed, after which the Chinese population suddenly entered the modernity, sweeping away the past institutions and society. Indeed, labeled as “bourgeois” by the historians ideologically oriented toward the marxism-maoism, the revolution witnesses the presence of the seeds of the nation-State and of its institutions well before the revolt took place. In the context of the Constitutional reform formally beginning in 1908 with an imperial edict of the first day in the eighth month of Guangxu reign (including, among the other things, the Constitutional Principles and the Preparatory Program), was the local self-government, part of the reform, really implemented? The local institutions emerging at the eve of the 1911 revolution, disappeared immediately after the constitution of the new republican government? or perhaps they reflected the changing society in their participating in the political arena? The paper tries to answer these questions through the analysis of the activities of some local assemblies and councils in Sichuan province, since the beginning of the first electoral process at the local level in 1909, up to the first years of the new Republic of China. The analysis uses, among other materials, documents from the Provincial Archives and from the archives of some counties. Thus, the aim of the paper is to delineate continuity and discontinuity in the concerned period, investigating the disruptive effects on the political participation of local communities by the institutional changes introduced by the Qing dynasty in her twilight, as well as how the newly born republican institutions interpreted the occurred changes.
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