Why Late Qing Constitutional Reform Failed: An Examination from the Comparative Institutional Perspective

This paper contends that the late Qing constitutional reform failed not because it was a top-down reform or because the need for survival prevailed the enlightenment movement. It argues that the reform failed to address two major crises: the problem of over-concentration of powers in terms of central-local relationship and the tension between Man-Han elites. Since these challenges were drastically different from those in Japan during the Meiji Era, the late Qing reform failed even though it emulated many polices of the Meiji Restoration.