Chen Duxiu's Constitutional Thought Research

Constitutionalism refers both to the constitution and Form of Government, in which the constitution, being the precondition and base of Constitutionalism, means democracy or popular sovereignty, while Form of Government means a system of institutions and principles which ensures the operation of democracy, power and rights, based on popular sovereignty. A prefect constitutionalism is a perfect combination of constitution and Form of Government. Without a constitution, Constitutionalism must be a fake; without the Form of Government, Constitutionalism must be unfounded.As a fruit of the western political civilization, Constitutionalism together with the western invasion of China came into our sight. Then it was employed as tool for the saving of our country. As a result, to us Chinese, Constitutionalism, which is not rooted in our own culture, is not a pursuit of democracy, freedom and human rights. What’s more, before the coming of Marxism, the pursuers of Constitutionalism in China only focus on its Form of Government and totally ignored its class attitude. After the coming of Marxism, the early communists began to realize both the form and the essence of the Constitutionalism. However, they paid too much attention to the problem of its essence for it was more urgent at that time. After a Chinese Reading of Constitutionalism, they drew a wrong conclusion that it’s equal to democracy. They failed to pay due attention to the form of Constitutionalism.Unlike the trichotomy or quartation in the study of the development of Duxiu Chen’s thoughts, I, based on the then social conditions and his personality, attempt to study his thoughts on Constitutionalism in five phases, namely, the early period of the New Culture Movement, the period within which our party was established, the period of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, the period after the failure of the Great Revolution, and his later years. With Constitutionalism’s double implications as an analytical framework, in the light of philosophy, historia, political science and the science of law, this dissertation is to comb his thoughts on Constitutional Government in different periods and their characteristics, to explore and analyze the relationships between the forming and developing of his thoughts on Constitutionaliam and the then social conditions and to recognize and evaluate objectively his thoughts on Constitutionalism and unearth their contemporary value.In this dissertation, I argue that the development of Duxiu Chen’s thoughts on Constitutionalism evolved with his understanding and grasping of the Constitutionalism’s double implications. At the beginning of the New Culture Movement, bearing in mind the concept of the "Real State", he sang highly of and tried his best to preach the western constitutional politics. However, unaware of its class nature and the separation of constitution and Form of Government in Constitutional Government, he only noted the governmental form of parliamentary system and multi-party system. When CCP was established, Duxiu Chen quickly became a Marxist and began to realize the separation of constitution and Form of Government in Constitutionalism, so he began to attack ferociously the the capitalist class’s virtual democracy and its Constitutionalism. Then he went on to pursue a socialist Constitutionalism based on the real democracy and came up with a Constitutionalism which is a perfect combination of the dictatorship of proletariat and government by the people. In the period of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, Duxiu Chen’s thoughts on Constitutionalism deteriorated due to the mixture of the democratic revolution of the colonies and semi-colonies and socialist revolution. He had to stick to the "people’s democracy" as the goal of socialist revolution, which would be the base of the constitution, but in the meantime he sought to employ the "national assembly", a capitalist Form of Government since he was facing the reality of the national revolution. Moreover, he had to think about how to combine the constitution and the Form of Government. Caught in those problems, Duxiu Chen began to waver in his thoughts on Constitutionalism and even showed self-contradiction in his relevant argument. After the failure of the Great Revolution, facing the Kuomintang military dictatorship in China, Duxiu Chen showed a stronger concern towards the constitution of the Constitutionalism and realized that the establishment of a democratic Constitutionalism would be out of the question without the overthrowing of the reactionary government. On the other hand, due to a wrong assessment of the situation at that time, he tried to establish a socialist Constitutionalism in the form of national assembly.In his later years, Duxiu Chen was far away from the whirl of Chinese political revolution, but he didn’t stop his pursuit of Constitutionalism. His critic of Soviet Union’s system of government when Stalin was in reign reflects his deep thinking in how to establish Constitutionalism after the democratic constitution is established in socialist countries. Only after he contemplated on it for6-7years did he present an abstract understanding of the democracy, but his thoughts on democracy and socialism, institution and individual, power and rights are not necessarily totally correct. Yet to the present construction of socialist Constitutionalism, his thoughts have helped to raise a rather serious question:how can we perfectly combine the constitution and Form of Government?Observed at a historical angle, the forming, developing and evolving of Duxiu Chen’s thoughts on Constitutionalism resulted from an interaction of the then social conditions and his personal factors. Like the ups and downs of his life, in his hard history of seeking Chinese Constitutionalism, he also came up with both right and wrong ideas. In the construction of socialist Constitutionalism, we should absorb critically the early communists’thoughts and well handle the relationships between the constitution and the Form of Government, value and tools, globalization and localization, institution and individual so as to make real progress.