Social Regulation And Control Over The Urban Lower Society By The Rulers In The Period Of The Republic Of China

Social regulation and control means that a state, as the subject of control, employ comprehensive means of law, administration, economy, moral education and the supervision of public opinions to perfect and strengthen social regulatory systems and avoid impermissible behavior so that most of the members of society can accept and abide by social regulatory systems and safeguard social public orders and help to achieve the harmony and stability of society. As for social regulation and control in sociology, it means that all the historical social constitutions employ social regulations and their corresponding measures to direct and restrain the behavior and ideas of social members and regulate all the social relations.During the period of the Republic of China, under the interaction of the interweaving opportunity between China and foreign countries, the main cities of Shandong Province, as a coastal province and an important south-north strategic area, began to grow, walking in the forefront of the national modernization, which was typical and representative in that period. Along with the development of modern urban economy, the urban social stratum experienced profound changes. Outside the traditional social community structure arose in new social communities, such as the compradors, entrepreneurs, employees, cultural and educational workers, liberal professionals, workers and city destitutes. In the traditional social structure, great changes also took place in the identity and position of the original communities, such as bureaucrats, handicraft operators, and mongers. The writer thinks that the urban society in Shandong at that time can be divided into nine stratums, among which the numerous are the social community of the city bottom layers, which was formed by four levels, that is, the groups with stable income like handicraftsmen, the mongers, the primary school teachers, the inferior employees of the government or those in the company, the labor groups like industrial workers, haircutters, repairmen, iron smiths, shoppers, fellows, disciples, the seasonal and coolie workers like rickshaws, carters, street standing dealers, constructors, carriers, the packing or unloading workers, the sweeping workers, and the homeless groups like beggars, prostitutes, burglars, starving masses and so on and so forth. During the period of the Republic of China, the urban social stratum was rapidly dividing, constantly bringing new problems and challenges to the social regulating mechanism and abilities. Such a situation is similar to that of the present society which is under the transformation period. To specifically expose the social stratum structure and existing condition of the urban lower society in Shandong Province during the period of the Republic of China, to re-emerge the real living view of that time, to restore to original the ways, methods, means and results that the governors regulated the urban lower society will provide a referential coefficient for today's Chinese society, will provide valuable historical experience for the managers and conductors of the present urban society, will be beneficial for us to change the existing conditions of the minority community, to develop economy, to construct a harmonious society and to realize mutual wealth, and will be helpful to understand the entire Chinese recent history as a whole. Through the researches into this subject, the writer hopes to fill in the blank in the study realm of the Chinese modern history and the urban history.Based on previous researches, this thesis reveals the structure of social classes and the constitution and situation of the urban lower society during the period of the Republic of China through the systematic analysis to the substantial historical materials in the cities in Shandong Province by combining sociology, urban science, administrative science, the science of law, military science, pedagogy, the science of management with the historical analysis and proof. It gives a deep probe into the authorities' social regulatory constitutions (including administrative management system, military forces, the police, espionage agency, etc.), laws and regulations, the control to culture and thought and social regulations, social relief and charities to the lower classes in the cities in Shandong Province during the period of the Northern Warlord's Government, the Nanjing National Government and the Japanese Illegitimate Government as well. It will not discuss too much about the authorities of Chinese Communist Party in Shandong Revolutionary Base because most of them were in the rural area and they didn't take over the management to the big and medium cities until the latter part of China's War of Liberation.The Northern Warlord's Government was lack of administrative regulatory measures because the national political authority hadn't really been established. What's more, the warlords fought with each other and the military power took the power and there were no legal regulation at all. Besides, the peasants went bankruptcy and the masses of the lower society in the cities were hopeless because of the lack of economic regulatory methods. People worshiped violence and the educational function of morals was lost. Therefore, the urban lower society lost their regulations and many social problems appeared due to the gradual weakening and eventual lost of regulatory function of social systems. Compared with the period of the Northern Warlords' Government, the social regulation ability of the local governments of Shandong Province improved a lot in the period of the Nanjing National Government. To the regulation of the urban lower society, their skills became mature and their systems were tighter and their methods were varied. The Kuomintang carried out their forceful social regulation to the urban lower society through their close administrative organization, immense military system and strict control of people's thought. In the period of the War of Resistance against Japan, the provincial government of Shandong went into exile and didn't establish stable social regulatory institutions such as the administrative systems and the police, etc.. because the Kuomintang were lack of determination to fight with Japan's aggression and effective anti-Japanese measures and they were always adhering to the partial anti-Japanese route. The Kuomintang Government's social regulation towards the urban lower society in Shandong Province changed from weakness to nothing in July, 1943, when its provincial government removed from Shandong Province. Under the control of Japanese puppet regime, the social regulatory systems in Shandong Province to the urban lower society were with thick colonial control color. Their brutality, tyranny and penetration were unprecedented. Japanese spies, advisers and military police dominated the social regulation to the urban lower society. The puppet organizations and regime served directly to the Japanese imperialists' political fighting. They established tight colonial control over the urban lower society by combining the military forces, espionage agency, military police and neighborhood administration with each other, connecting the police with neighborhood administration and carrying out enslaving education, etc.. After the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan, the Kuomintang resumed its control over Shandong Province by associating with the former Japanese puppet regime. Due to the weak political reform, the immense administrative constitution and its deficient administration, ceaseless bribery and corruption, its economic policies's lack of extensive care for the urban lower society and its plunging China into civil war, it didn't fulfill its goal of social regulation over the urban lower society for its lost of democracy, justice and eventual lost of public support although it took quite a lot of measures to consolidate its one-party autocracy. Its functions weakened gradually and in the end it withdrew from the historical stage of Shandong Province with its military forces and its regime.To sum up, the lack of social regulation and control which rulers in the period of the Public of China imposed on the urban lower society is determined by their limitations. The Northern Warlords and Kuomintang in themselves represent the squires, the compradors and the capitalist class. They stand for the interest of the imperialism's power of the invasion in China, fawning on foreign countries and cruelly killing their countrymen with despotism. As to the social regulation and control of the urban lower society, on the one hand they inherit the legacy of Chinese feudalism; on the other hand they rub up the dead hand of western fascism. What's more, the social regulation and control system in this period in essence are multilated, which is related to the corruption of the bureaucratic machine. It is closely connected with the underdevelopment of the social regulation and control system in the modernized process of social transformation. At the same time, the social regulation and control policy lacks systematicness with the unbalance of coerciveness and protective value. Therefore, the social regulation and control are in scarcity of protective function and short of the effective social security and relief mechanism for the urban lower society.