An Exploration Of Zhang Junmai’s Constitutional Thought

Zhang Junmai’s constitutional thought originated from the western liberal democratic constitutional thought,so he highly praised freedom,human rights and democratic politics.However,in order to save the national crisis and under the influence of Hegel’s legal view of "nationalism",Zhang Junmai once turned to "nationalism" and even advocated the benefits of centralized government.But it was not until the 1940 s,when he witnessed the abuse of freedom and human rights under the Kuomintang dictatorship,that he finally returned to liberalism.The modern and contemporary China where Zhang Junmai lived was in a complex and volatile political and social environment,and his constitutional thoughts inevitably changed repeatedly at any time,presenting a complex state.But one thing is certain: he was always a firm liberal.The core of Zhang Junmai’s constitutional thoughts is the thought of freedom and human rights.He insisted that only freedom is the driving force of human progress.In order to realize freedom,on the one hand,the basic human rights of citizens must be protected by constitution,on the other hand,people should also keep alert to rights,so that the foundation of constitutional government can be established.In addition,democracy was also a very important category for Zhang Junmai to construct his constitutional ideological system.In order to realize democratic constitutionalism,Zhang Junmai put forward the "revised democratic politics",that is,taking the strength of autocratic and democratic political systems and taking the third path;On the other hand,China must formulate a constitution,so that constitutional government can be established.Zhang Junmai also improved the western constitutional system in Chinese style,and designed a compromise and harmonious regime model suitable for China: changing the visible state to the invisible state,weakening the state congress,and strengthening the status of the legislative yuan;Make it clear that the central government system is a mixture of British and American;Emphasizing the independence of the Judicial Yuan;The division of central authority and local authority is determined.Through the exploration of the origin and content of Zhang Junmai’s constitutional thought,it is not difficult to draw a conclusion that Zhang’s constitutional thought and constitutional practice are of historical value.On the one hand,Zhang Junmai’s constitutional thoughts and practice have historical contributions: he held a rationalist attitude towards the constitution,and designed a scientific constitutional system under the guidance of rational political ideas;Introducing western learning and making localized transformation;Bravely participated in the practice of constitutional government and spread the constitutional thought.On the other hand,his constitutional government scheme inevitably has historical limitations: he regarded constitutional government system as the gao,and inevitably fell into the mire of institutional determinism;His moderate reformism could not cope with the complicated domestic political situation and his participation in the puppet National Congress in order to realize the constitutional ideal also reflected his compromise to the reality in the practice of constitutional government.In the course of pursuing the ideal of constitutionalism,he slipped towards "nationalism".