Page 137 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Comparative Politics and Government

Notes 6. ‘Syncretisme’
The Constitution of the Fifth Republic may be said to introduce a system of multiple principles
what the French people call syncretisme. It can be visualised in the following institutional
arrangements provided by it:
(i) The Parliament is a bi-cameral organisation having Senate and the National Assembly in
which the powers of the former are co-ordinate with that of the latter, except where the
government decides to give the Assembly the last word.
(ii) Though the Prime Minister and his ministers cannot be the members of the Parliament,
they are responsible to it.
(iii) The Prime Minister has both procedural and constitutional means of dominating the
Parliament, including the National Assembly.
Making of the Republic of China
Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905 gave a new impetus to the upsurge of Chinese nationalism.
Now the ‘maker of modern China’ appeared. He was Dr. Sun Yatsen. Inspired by the three ideals
– People’s Nationalism, People’s Democracy and People’s Livelihood – he exhorted the people to
follow him for making the revolution successful. As a result, the revolution of 1911 took place
when the Manchu rule was overthrown and China became a republic. A new Constitution came
into force and Dr. Sun Yat-sen made his nephew Yuan Shi-kai the President. However, the objective
of the revolution was frustrated as the first President moved in the direction of establishing his
personal rule. He abrogated the Constitution after a year of its inauguration and was prevented by
death from crowning himself as the emperor. It shows that the revolution of 1911 failed the reason
of which should be traced in the fact that the revolutionaries had little in common beyond
overthrowing the Manchu dynasty, and because there “was little Chinese nationalism at the time
to give support to the new republic”.
The message of the revolution of 1911 was now carried by the Nationalist People’s Party or the
Kuomintang (former Alliance Society) that posed a serious threat to the dictatorial ambitions of
the first President. What, however, came into the way of Chinese progress was the imperialistic
expansion of Japan that in 1915 made notorious 21 demands on China. Fortunately, due to the
pressures of Britain and the United States, the Japanese rulers modified their demands and there
by secured a foothold in the mainland of China. The successor of the first President, Li Yung failed
miserably and thus the Kuomintang (KMT) set up a separate government in the south with its
capital at Canton. Moreover, the governors of certain provinces raised their own armies and they
became ‘war-lords’. Thus was ushered in the short era of war-lordism signifying that China
“fragmented into a number of conflicting regional units, each based on locally recruited army, and
often backed by one or the other of the great Powers seeking to defend their own interests.”
The deteriorating situation could be checked in 1921 when Dr. Sun Yat-sen became the President
of Chinese government in the south. He reorganised his KMT and then moved towards the north
to deal with the formidable forces of war-lordism. The expedition took place under the command
of Chiang Kai-shek. A new Constitution was adopted in 1924 and the Organic Law of the National
Government was enforced in 1928.
The momentous development that took place at this stage was Dr. Sun’s getting close to the
communists to deal with the forces of internal disruption. He appreciated the idea of including the
communists in the KMT as ‘individuals’ and not as party members. The Russian emissary Michael
Borodin could persuade Dr. Sun to reorganise his KMT on the pattern of the Communist Party of
the USSR he was also instrumental in the establishment of the Whampoa military academy which
was headed by Chiang Kai-shek, though it had a large number of Russian military experts on its
staff. The way for the infiltration of the communists was thus opened.
Differences between the communist and anti-communist elements grew up after the death of Dr.
Sun in 1925 when Chiang held the office of the President. In 1927 he took to the course of totally
suppressing the communists. The result was the downfall of the leadership of Ch’en Tuhsiu. The
communists could not improve their position until Mao Tse-tung assumed the undisputed

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