The Two Constitutional Reforms at the Beginning of the 20th Century and their Implication

There are a lot of similarities between the constitutional reform of late Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the 20th century and the Kuomintang constitutional reform in 1940s. In the respect of background, the change of social structure caused by economic development facilitates the arrival of the reform; the serious national crisis becomes the immediate cause of the reform; the domestic interest groups challenge the reformer. As far as the course is concerned, the two constitutional reforms have certain long period of time and twists; they both have extensive communal participation; the ruling class involved in the two constitutional reforms are both conservative and incompetent The two constitutional reforms indicate that democratic strength is enormous and the democratic trend is irresistible. What is more, the ruling class can’t stay in power forever unless representing the will of the people and going with the tide of historical development. Still more, the modernized undertaking must have the extensive and voluntary participation of the people.