水利主导权之争:近代浙西水利议事会的成立与改组

Water Conservancy Dominance Contention:The West Zhejiang Water Conservancy Council’s Establishment and Reorganization in Modern Times

近代以来,受水旱天灾、兵燹破坏以及客民垦殖的影响,浙西水利遭受严重破坏。清末新政实施后,清政府鼓励地方实行自治,乃有设立浙西水利议事会之提议。议事会筹设过程中围绕水利治权、经费来源即有激烈争论。议事会成立后,为统筹地方水利工程,完善了组织框架和工程议决制度,力图处理好自治组织与政府权力的关系,为浙西水利事业作出了重要贡献。南京国民政府成立后,为统一水利行政,浙江省设立了水利局,强化了政府的水利主导权,并通过对议事会章程和相关制度的修订,削弱议事会的权力,使其逐渐融入以政府为主导的水利行政体系之中。浙西水利议事会的成立与运作体现了近代政局动荡下社会精英参与政府管理、分享政治权力的意图,但作为政治权力的附庸,社会精英阶层只能在既有的政治框架内进行利益诉求,无力阻拦南京国民政府重建政府权威的努力。

Since the advent of modern times,the irrigation works in the west of Zhejiang province have suffered severe damage due to wars,migrants’farming,and floods,droughts and other natural disasters.The Qing government encouraged local autonomy after the implementation of the New Deal(the Constitutional Reform)in the late Qing Dynasty.It was then proposed to establish the West Zhejiang Water Conservancy Council.In the process of setting up,there were fierce disputes about the conservancy power and fund source.Later,the Council,in order to coordinate local water conservancy projects,improved its organization and project resolution system,and made efforts to handle the power relationship between the government and itself as an autonomous organization.It made significant contributions to the water conservancy industry in west Zhejiang.After the Nanjing National Government was established in 1927,Zhejiang set up a Water Conservancy Bureau to unify water conservancy administration,by which it strengthened the government’s leading role and weakened the Council’s power through amendments to the Council’s constitution and related regulations.Therefore,the Council was gradually integrated into the government-led administration system.The Council’s establishment and operation exhibit the social elites’intention to participate in governmental management and share political power in the political turmoil in modern times.Meanwhile,the social elites,as a political dependency,can only pursue their interests within the existing political framework,with the inability to obstruct the Nanjing National Government’s efforts to rebuild the government’s authority.