Special Congressmen: Representative Democracy in Early 20th-Century China

Abstract

Special congressmen are a special category born out of the practice of representative democracy in China at the beginning of the twentieth century. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, quota members were reserved in the Qing government’s laws for non-Northeast Chinese bannermen. During the Republic of China period, quota members gradually became a political symbol, representing the pursuit of the right to participate in politics by different interest groups in China at that time. The conceptual change of the phrase “special congressmen” mirrors the political changes of the late Qing and early Republican periods, and microcosmically represents the political and legal environment of China at that time.