FROM COUNTY MAGISTRATE TO COUNTY HEAD: THE ROLE AND SELECTION OF SENIOR COUNTY OFFICIALS IN GUANGDONG PROVINCE IN THE TRANSITION FROM EMPIRE TO REPUBLIC

Abstract

When China became a republic in 1912, the country’s core territorial units of province and county were retained intact. Continuity in the territorial architecture of state from empire to republic invites the question of whether provinces and counties were institutionally identical before and after the revolution. This paper explores adjustments made to the county level of government aimed at meeting republican ideals of good government and popular sovereignty. It probes changes in the roles assigned to county heads and the patterns of their appointment in Guangdong relating to educational qualifications, native places, and tenure over the transitional period. Employing magistrate tenure as a proxy for the stability of local government, the paper correlates variations in the length of tenure with other variables at the provincial and sub-provincial levels of government, including competition between different echelon levels, disputes between military and civil authorities, in-fighting among regime factions, and methods of appointment varying over time from appointment by administrative fiat to county-head elections. By relating these variables to longitudinal data on magistrates’ length of tenure, it identifies some of the challenges facing provincial and county authorities in trying to manage the revolutionary transition from empire to republic at the local level while keeping the inherited territorial system largely intact.