地方自治的探索:民国初期江苏省县下设市实践

Exploration of Local Autonomy:Practice of Cities under Counties in Jiangsu Province in Early Republic of China

1911年底,江苏临时省议会通过《江苏暂行市乡制》。江苏省政府延续清末地方自治的思路,设置市、乡办理地方公益事宜。从空间分布上看,江苏省的县辖市呈现出中部多于北部与南部、分布相对分散两个特征,这样的分布特征和设市标准、自治基础、设市模式、传统市镇的分布格局等因素密切相关。受政局变动影响,民国初期江苏省县下设市的实践过程十分曲折。尽管江苏省的县下设市工作有不足之处,但它在推动县域多中心发展方面仍起到了一定积极作用。从市制发展角度看,江苏省的县下设市工作是市制成型前的一次重要探索。

At the end of 1911,the Provisional Provincial Council of Jiangsu passed the bill of Provisional City and Township System of Jiangsu.The provincial government continued the idea of local autonomy in the late Qing Dynasty and set up cities and townships to handle local public welfare matters.In terms of spatial distribution,the central region of the province had more cities under the jurisdiction of counties than the northern and southern regions and the distribution was relatively scattered.The two distribution features are closely related to such factors as the standard of setting up a city,the basis of autonomy,the mode of setting up a city,and the distribution pattern of traditional towns.Influenced by the political changes at that time,Jiangsu’s process of practicing the city-under-county system in the early Republic of China was very tortuous.In spite of some shortcomings in Jiangsu’s work of setting up cities under counties,it still played a positive role in promoting the development of multi-centers in counties.From the perspective of city system development,Jiangsu’s work of setting up cities under counties is an important exploration prior to the formation of city system.