The State Building Of Nanjing National Government (1927-1948)

This paper takes two core concepts of the state building theory:state autonomy and state ability,as dimensions to divide national forms into four types:strong-autonomous state,strong-captive state,weak-autonomous state,failed state.Then the two concepts are used as analytical path to describe the general characteristics and explain the changes of national forms of Nanjing National Government.The paper pointed out that the interaction of three national ability:ability of draw taxes,force and mobilization,has deeply affected the construction of state autonomy of Kuomintang regime.Faced a strong alliance of warlord and gentry,which caused a fragmented social control,the government developed a series of institutions,laws and policies to strengthen its ability in the early days of its establishment and showed strong state autonomy.But by cleared the Communist Party in 1927,the Kuomintang weakened its ability to mobilize,which in two ways undermined the construction of national autonomy:1.the national government had to rely on one-way ability of rule,the ability to draw and force to promote its national construction,the result is the mutual deterioration of its weak financial capacity and military forces.The new system is difficult to implement for the lack of financial and compulsory capacity,and ultimately had to compromise with the old regime 2.The factional culture of Kuomintang cannot be eliminated,leading to the private attribute of the faction replace the national attribute of the party,which destroyed the state autonomy under the party-state regime.The continuation of the warlord-gentry regime and the variation of the party-state regime turned the goal of the transformation of the old system,the construction of a new state system,and the construction of a strong modern nation-state into an abortive revolution.In the end,the national form of the Nanjing National Government has undergone a change from a weak country with strong national autonomy to a failed state that lack of both state autonomy and state ability.