联省自治运动与民主转型之困境

The Autonomy Movement and the Democratic Transition Dilemma in Modern China

联省自治运动是近代中国一场追求联邦主义的宪政统一运动,其实质是最终实现中国由帝国而宪政的民主转型。但是与美国等典型联邦制国家相比,联邦论在中国形成了语境错置和语义倒置,地方自治的阙失和民主意识的匮乏,联省自治运动与中国政制传统形成强烈的抵牾,宪政制度的创新并未带来宪政建构进步,反而形成转型困境。联邦制的分权功能难抵大一统的集权功能,难以完成中国的政治整合。联邦制最后成为被放弃的历史选择。

The Autonomy Movement in modern China was a political movement to build a federal government,whose ultimate goal was to transform the federal empire to a country with a constitutional government.However,unlike the situation in the USA and other typical federal countries,federalism is a wrong concept in modern China,for the lack of tradition of local autonomy and democracy.As a result,the Autonomy Movement was conflicting to the political tradition of modern China.The constitutionalism did not result in the formation of a constitutional government but hindered the transformation.All these dilemmatic factors lead to the failure of this movement.