辛亥革命时期的省制纠结

辛亥各省光复政权乃至民初政府的省制，多在清末外官改制和各省独立自治的基础上加以变通，共和制下如何确定中央与地方的关系，省制成为关键。民初朝野舆论相持最久、困扰最多的省制方案与争论，不宜单从民主与专制较量的角度立论，还应考虑时人对国家统一的向往与对分裂的隐忧。中国历史文化中，分合与治乱兴衰紧密联系。省制模式中集权与分权、官治与自治的平衡取舍，既与民主、专制相关联，也与统一或分裂的抉择相始终。由于以省为地方自治层级范围过大，东西方各国无此先例，单一制与联邦制均不适合，民初省制因此成为本土国情与域外制度纠结甚深的焦点。这一难解的症结，或许仍将对中国的政治体制改革产生深远影响。

The Dilemma of Provincial Administration Systems during the 1911 Revolution

The administration systems of most provinces taken over by revolutionaries in 1911,and even the provincial system established by the central government in the early Republican period were adaptations the provincial bureaucratic reform and provincial independence and self-government of the late Qing.How should the relationship between central government and local government be determined in a republican system? The key was provincial administration.The public dispute over provincial administration programs in the early Republican period was the longest-lasting and most troublesome issue of the time.It is not suitable for us to look at it just as a contest between democracy and autocracy.We should consider the yearnings of people at the time for national unification and their secret anxieties over regional fragmentation.In Chinese historical culture,division and unification were closely related to order,chaos,rise and decline.The balance and choice between centralization and decentralization of power,between appointed bureaucracy and self-government,related not only to democracy and autocracy,but also to the choice between unification or division.Provinces were too large to be the basic units of self-government,so there were no precedents to draw on in either the East or West,and neither a unitary system nor a federal system were suitable for China.Therefore,during the early Republican period the provincial administration system became the focal point for entanglements between native conditions and foreign systems.This chronic and stubborn disease might yet exert profound influence on reforms of China’s political system.