The Spread and Reconstruction of State Type Theories in Modern East Asia

The theory of dividing and comparing state types originated from Europe and America, and was introduced into the East Asia in the middle 19th century. Compared with the slow progress and limited scale of acceptance in China, Meiji Japan quickly formed systematic knowledge of state types, which was mainly about discussing the relationship between forms of state and forms of government. Although the debate on whether and how to distinguish forms of state and forms of government was directly derived from western countries, the fundamental crux lied in the fact that Japan faced the entanglement of monarchy and constitutional politics. After introducing theories of dividing state types from Japan in late Qing Dynasty, China’s political force also developed different ideas on the relationship between forms of state and forms of government due to the different opinions of monarchy and democratic rights. After the 1911 revolution, because of the end of monarchy and the rise of republic, Japanese theories of dividing state types lost their vitality. With the bankruptcy of parliamentary politics and the emergence of class problem, the new revolutionary forces needed to develop new types of state theory which was suitable for the real demand of China’s political situation.