ABSTRACT
The local self-government movement of the late Qing was also characterized by local consciousness and influences since it emerged out of the mutual interaction of society and government. This essay explores how the bourgeoisie, with the new gentry-merchants at its core, developed citizenship consciousness and began to participate in politics over the course of the local self-government movement. “Local self-government” in its contemporary sense is a product of the political culture and historical conditions of Western capitalism. Local self-government in Europe and America originated in the “citizen government” of the classical and medieval eras. Following the rise in the forces of production and the development of the social division of labor in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, commercial cities gradually developed in the territories possessed by the church and feudal lords.
