Preparative Constitutionalism or Preparatory Constitutionalism (), also known as Preparation of Constitutionalism, refers to attempts by the imperial government of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

of China at implementing top-down

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

al reforms. The Qing government issued an imperial edict, deciding to imitate the implementation of

constitutionalism Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law". Political organizations are constitutional ...

, but believed that the conditions were not available, so it was necessary to prepare in advance, so it was called "Preparative Constitutionalism". On September 1, 1906, the Qing court formally declared the Preparative Constitutionalism, thus taking the first step in the history of Chinese constitutionalism and the first step in the reform of the Chinese state system. With the outbreak of the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty, the Manchu people, Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of Chi ...

in October 1911, the process of Preparative Constitutionalism was interrupted and failed completely with the demise of the Qing dynasty in February 1912.

References

1906 in China Qing dynasty {{China-hist-stub